Bioshock Infinite: Union
by Solarmech
Summary: Five years after returning from Columbia, Booker DeWitt is drawn into a conflict he wants no part of and must fight for what is most precious to him. Contains spoilers for Bioshock Infinite and Burial At Sea.
1. Chapter 1

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 1

He jolted up out of bed as he had so many nights before. Though the room was pitch black, he easily found his way to the dresser and struck a match to light the small lamp that rested there. Not the first time he had woken like this and wouldn't be the last.

As the flame brightened the room, Booker DeWitt looked at the reflection in the dresser's mirror. It still bothered him a little, even after five years. The face in the mirror was younger than it should be. True, he had not changed much from the ages of 19 to 38, but it been had very strange to suddenly be nearly twenty years younger.

Not nearly as strange as being alive and back in 1893 after dying in the Sea of Doors though.

Many things were different from the last time he had been 24 years old. His daughter, Anna, slept down the hall in a room of her own in the small home he owned. She had long dark hair tied in a ponytail, big blue eyes and was practically bursting with energy. She was more than just smart and learned incredibly fast, which could be a problem at times.

But he didn't mind, she was everything to him.

He was doing well financially because of hard work and investments. Of course knowing what would probably happen ahead of time was a big help. He had friends, not many, but a few. Drinking and gambling had been easier to quit this time, but smoking had been a real challenge. Anna's coughing had been more than enough reason to stop, but he had to admit that he did feel better for it.

One thing had not changed and that was the nightmares. No, that wasn't quite right. Wounded Knee still haunted him as it had tonight, but in a different way. Before when the nightmares came, he was in the encampment full of rage, killing at will and unwilling, unable to even think of stopping. Now he stood on a hill and was forced to watch the slaughter below, unable to stop it no matter how hard he tried.

Columbia rarely troubled his dreams, but instead lived with him during the waking hours. He could remember them all. All the other Booker's, Comstock. He could push away those memories so they did not bother him much, but some things still preyed on him. Was Comstock really gone? Could he still someday become Comstock?

Elizabeth.

'No getting back to sleep tonight. Better get dressed and do something.'

He glanced at the clock and sighed. It was just after four in the morning. At least he didn't have to worry about waking Anna. She slept like a log after running around like a little hellion all day. Today was Saturday and they usually went to the park. Hopefully she would get good and tired before lunch.

Like that would happen.

He looked around the room. Plain wood floor with a few carpets, a bed, the dresser, a night stand, two wardrobes and a lonely wooden chair. It was simple and functional. There weren't even any paintings on the walls. He knew he could afford something much more lavish, but why bother? He didn't need anything more and the money was better used for the small, but growing library he knew Anna would need as she grew older.

He rubbed his eyes and walked over to the closest wardrobe to put on his work cloths and check on the furnace. It was the second week of October and the nights were getting colder. As he started to pull off his nightshirt, he heard a sound. It was a sound he could never forget.

The sound of a Tear opening.

"ANNA!" he screamed as he raced to the door.

As he pounded down the hallway he heard his daughter shriek and call for him.

And then a man's voice, but he couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Daddy!"

"Anna! I'm Coming!"

Just before he hit the door to Anna's room he cursed that he had left his pistol in his office. But it had been too dangerous to keep around the house with Anna there. She got into everything.

Booker slammed open the door to Anna's bedroom. The Tear shimmered at the foot of his daughters bed, illuminating the room and three men in long coats that had invaded it. Two of them struggled with Anna as she fought and screamed for him.

The third had pistol in hand and opened fire.

He was on the floor, didn't remember falling. It was all black, but he could hear Anna screaming for him.

"Shut the little bitch up will you? We gotta get outa here before someone else shows up."

There was a sound of something striking flesh and Anna became silent.

"What about him?" asked another voice.

"He's had it. Not wastin' a bullet on em." A third voice said. This voice was harsh, distinctive.

Booker's vision was slowly returning, but it was dark and everything was far away. He could see last of the men step through the Tear and reached out to try and stop them.

"Anna."

As the Tear closed, Booker lost his grip on the world and everything faded away.

…

He returned to consciousness slowly. It took some time for him to remember what happened and push the pain of his wounds aside. Then he became aware of two people talking. A man and a woman. The voices sounded familiar. Smelled odd.

The woman "Are you sure he is going to live?"

The man "The others did show themselves to be quite resilient."

Ah hell. Those Two.

The woman "I still don't see why you are doing this."

The man "Payment for services rendered?"

The woman "This one never did anything for us."

The man "Then, maybe I dislike our invention being used to kidnap children?"

The woman "Yes, that is quite disagreeable I will admit."

He cracked his eyes open and coughed. Was in a hospital room. That accounted for the smell.

The woman "Ah, I see he is awake."

Booker really didn't want to put up with these two's antics right now, but they might be the only way for him to find Anna.

The woman "Mr. DeWitt, if I may…"

He interrupted "You're Rosalind Lutece, and that is your "brother" Robert Lutece. You invented the Tear Machine and the quantum whatevers that kept Columbia afloat."

Wished he could have enjoyed the expressions on their faces, but had far bigger concerns right now.

The male Lutece recovered more quickly "Well, that certainly eliminates the need a lengthy explanation."

"Why are you here?" he asked. It was difficult to keep from demanding, but he managed. Barely.

"My brother was attempting to convince me to render some small manner of assistance to you in this particular matter. But this recent revelation promises to make this experiment much more interesting than I had anticipated."

The male Lutece pulled out a piece of folded paper and presented it with a flourish. "I believe that you shall find everything you require here."

Booker took the paper and a key fell out. He looked at the paper and noted that the only thing written on it was an address, someplace on east side. When he glanced back up the two had vanished. Not surprised by that in any way.

"Time to get to work."

He tried to get up and nearly passed out. "Maybe... in a little while."

Moments later a fortyish looking woman in white came through the door looking puzzled. She looked at him and quickly left.

A few minutes later a man in a long white coat came in followed by the woman.

"I see your awake Mr. DeWitt. I am Doctor Schoff. You gave Helen here quite a surprise, we didn't think you would wake so quickly." The tone of Schoff's voice hinted that he hadn't expected him to wake up at all.

"When can I get out of here? Got something to do."

Schoff was taken back by the question. "You are a lucky man and despite you exceptional recovery, it will be sometime before I could allow you to leave."

"How long." he demanded. Not like the first time he had ever been shot.

"I would say three week, maybe longer."

"Not going to be that long." he promised the doctor.

…

As he promised, it was only two weeks before he was well enough to leave the hospital. Two maddening weeks. Friends and acquaintances visited to help lift his spirits, but they could never understand what happened, so he didn't even try to tell them. Anna's nanny, a young woman named Mary visited the most often. Theodore had been uncharastically quiet when he visited the one time, but he had known loss and understood it well. The police came by several times and acted like they had leads on who took Anna, but Booker didn't think they cared much. Newspaper reporters bothered him constantly, but he was able to avoid them by claiming his wounds pained him. They smelled a sensational story and didn't care about much else. He needed to stay out of the light of news coverage and as deep in the shadows as he could.

One thing he couldn't figure was who had sent the people to kidnap Anna. At first he had thought they were from some Columbia that had somehow escaped destruction, but that didn't feel right. Their clothes where wrong and they were too sloppy to be Comstock's fanatics. The Founders would never have left "the False Shepard" live. These people had acted more like street thugs. But who else other than Comstock would want Anna? The Vox? Anna wasn't the Lamb. They had not quarrel with her.

The first thing he did when he got out of the hospital was go to the office to get his gun and then it was to the address Lutece had given him. It was slow going because he needed a crutch to get around, but that wasn't going to stop him. When he got to the address he found it to be a small warehouse. The key he had been given didn't work on any of the locks on the first floor so had to try them on the second. At the first door at the top of the stairs the door the key easily opened the lock and he pushed the doors open.

Beyond he found a storage area filled with unusual equipment. It only took a few moments to confirm they were parts for a Tear Machine. But this equipment looked older than what he had seen in Columbia and hadn't been used in some time. Unbidden, Comstock's memories told him this equipment was for the first prototype device like the one that used to take Anna from him last time.

Was there a version of Robert Lutece still in this reality? Or had he left to be with his "sister"?

He decided that it really didn't matter.

There were some things in the room that where not parts of the Tear Machine. The first of these was something he never thought to see again, a Skyhook. Picking it up felt like shaking hands with an old friend. Close examination confirmed what he already knew deep down. It was the same Skyhook he had used in Columbia. Really didn't want to know how Lutece had gotten their hands on it.

Beneath it was a stack of papers that contained a full set of instructions and plans to assemble the Tear Machine. He found a work bench and a chair to spent the next several hours reading through. Looked like a some new parts would be needed to get the Tear Machine to work, but he knew someone that should be able to supply them. The last page of the instructions was filled with warnings. One of them predicted that the Tear Machine would have a limited life span and would burn out after only a short time. He understood the underlying warning. If he went through the tear, he probably wouldn't be coming back.

He didn't care. He had to find Anna.

…

The first thing he had to do was let Mary go. It was hard, Mary thought of Anna as her little sister and Anna loved her. The girl almost begged to stay and help him, but he couldn't have anyone else around for his work. He gave her three months' pay and promised her that if Anna did come back, she could return.

Next, he had the equipment from the warehouse moved into his home. He would have liked to have built it elsewhere, but it needed to be as close to possible the location of the tear. Creating a new tear wouldn't take him to where his daughter was. He needed to reopen the original one.

The instructions estimated that it would take six to eight weeks to build the Tear Machine, but it took just under four, despite being slowed by his still healing wounds. Comstock had studied the Tear Machine and leaned much from Lutece. He put that knowledge to use despite how much he hated Comstock.

He was going to use everything and anything he could to find his daughter, no matter the cost.

When he first started, friends would visit often, but he had no other choice but to gently turn them away. There was no way he could allow them to enter the house. How could he explain it? They likely thought he had gone mad and if they saw the Tear Machine they would be certain of it. He couldn't allow even the chance they might interfere.

Finally, everything was ready. The device squatted in the remains of Anna's bedroom like a monster and pushed up into the attic. He'd had to make some modifications in order to keep it from punching a hole in the roof and the floor had needed to be reinforced. Cables snaked all over the place with some running all the way down the stairs to the engine needed to power the device.

All he had to do was throw a single large switch and it would all come to life.

He had planned ahead for this trip in every way he could think of. Plans if they came back a week from now, a month, even years. Plans for if only Anna came back.

Plans if neither of them came back.

He was going through this tear more prepared then when he went to Columbia at least. A leather shoulder bag packed with food, some silver and gold coins, extra ammo and simple survival tools. He had even written himself a message in case going through the tear caused problems with his memory as it had done the first time. His pistol and the Skyhook were the only other things he would carry.

One thing he couldn't plan for was how close the tear would be to Anna. Tears could drift both in time and space. He could be some distance from Anna and arriving many weeks after she did.

Taking deep breath, Booker threw the switch to start the Tear Machine and stepped back as far as he could.

It started slowly. First a spark here and there, then tiny bolts of electricity played over parts of the device. He glanced over at the dials and gages that monitored the machine's status and everything was as it should be. In a few moments electricity arced over the machine regularly and he briefly felt like he was in one of Nikola's demonstrations.

With a flash, the Tear opened. A shimmering hole in what people called reality.

He quickly studied the readouts and they confirmed that he had reopened the Tear, not created a new one. Somewhere on the other side of that Tear, that Door was his daughter.

He walked to the Tear and studied it for a moment. It looked to be inside a building with lots of chairs and tables. A restaurant? Outside the windows it was dark and there were no people he could see. Was as good as he was going to get.

"Daddies coming, Anna. Hold on." he whispered.

Booker DeWitt stepped through the Tear and into another place and time.

End Chapter 1


	2. Chapter 2

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 2

Booker stepped through the Tear and quickly surveyed his surroundings as he drew his pistol. What he saw bothered him. Bullet holes in the walls, rotten food on the plates, a dead body hidden under a table. Some kind of fighting was going on and his daughter was here, all alone.

The only good thing he could see was that this didn't seem to be Columbia. No Columbia he remembered looked like this place did. Lots of metal and marble along with materials he didn't recognize. Comstock had seen similar things through the tears though. He was years, decades away from where he had been.

He pulled out the paper that said "Read Me" on it and quickly looked it over. Everything on it matched his memory. At least he would not have to be dealing with "tear sickness" this time around.

He glanced back at the Tear and saw that a fire had started in Anna's bedroom. He had stored everything of importance before he left, but knowing their home of three years of was going to burn was saddening.

"That's one way to keep secrets." he muttered as the Tear slammed shut in a burst of light.

He was looking for an exit when he saw something move outside of the window. He stopped and stared at it several moments in shock.

"Can't be." he whispered.

He started to look around for something, anything that would tell him where he was. A newspaper! He snatched it up to read it. The name on the paper confirmed what he had seen outside the window had been a fish.

He had been here before. This was Rapture.

…

He quickly scanned the paper for anything he could use. The date on the paper was September 27, 1958, but he could tell the paper was months old. Meant the year was probably 1959. At least year before he was here with Elizabeth, or will be here with Elizabeth. Thinking about it should was enough to make his head hurt, but he guess he had gotten used to it. The paper seemed to be rehashing a story about the killing of a criminal named Fontaine by the local constabulary and what was to become of his property. Nothing that he could see that might lead him to Anna.

He tossed the paper aside. Why here? Elizabeth had brought them both here after the Syphon had been destroyed to kill Songbird. Why would people from this city take his Anna? Neither of them had a connection to Rapture other than a brief visit. Did this place have a connection to Columbia? If it had, Comstock hadn't known about it.

'Not going to find any answers standing around here.'

He spotted the exit and headed towards it. The double doors were closed and a body was sprawled on its back near them. A key broken off in the door's lock and the bullet holes in the doors matched the bullet holes in the corpse. He didn't bother checking the body to see if there was anything useful, someone had already emptied his pockets. Looking at the body, Booker couldn't help but notice that it didn't look right. The right side of his face was misshapen, like it had melted some and his left hand had some kind of odd growths.

Leaving the body, he checked behind the counter and went back into the kitchen. There had been a fire here at one point. It still reeked of smoke and most of it was black with soot, but it wasn't enough to hide the two dead bodies within.

Off the kitchen there was a small area with lockers and a small table. On the table was a device that caught his eye. He didn't recognize it, but it seemed familiar somehow. He examined it for a moment before he realized what it was and why it was familiar. The Accu-Vox label on the device confirmed his suspicion.

Rapture's version of the Voxophone.

_Jacob Murphy: I don't deserve this._

_November 26, 1958_

_I'm just a short order cook, I shouldn't be there. So I worked at a restaurant Fontaine owned. So what? I didn't do anything. I cooked food. It was a job. Why did they lock me up in here with these spliced up freaks?_

Spliced up freaks? Imprisoning anyone that worked for that Fontaine guy? Didn't like the sound of any of this.

As he had expected, while the front doors had been locked, the back door hadn't. The corridor outside was empty. Less damage here as well. Just some broken glass and bits of trash. Well, a lot of broken glass. Someone had smashed in the window of "Ben's Bargain Basement Shoes" across the way.

He avoided the worst of the broken glass and carefully climbed into the store and searched it. The store was mostly just racks and racks of shoes. All he found were a few coins and some self- adhesive bandages. No bullet holes in here. Maybe things weren't quite as bad as he thought? Wished he could believe that, even for even a moment. Things were probably lot worse than he knew.

He exited the shoe store and crossed to "Eva's Beauty". The place has been given a good tossing and most everything had been smashed. Here and there were burn marks as well as bullet holes. He found the body of a woman that was probably a month old. Had a name tag that said "Eva" on it. Above her body, presumably written in her own blood, was the word "hoarder".

"Seems the lady didn't want to share and paid for it."

As he turned to leave, he noticed something purple in the refuse. A very familiar shade of purple. He walked over to it and picked it up.

A bottle of Shock Jockey.

He could hear that stupid jingle of "Who needs the power company?" in his head as he looked at the empty bottle. The dead woman had probably used it.

Now he had his proof. Rapture and Columbia *were* connected. Now had to figure out *how* they were connected and what, if anything, it had to do with Anna. It wasn't right, Columbia should be gone, it should be over! He pushed down his anger and strode out of the shop.

There was nothing else on this level and the only way out was a set of wide stairs down to a lower level.

Below was some sort of lobby and display area that featured a huge window that looked out into the dark sea. As he walked down the stairs he took note of the general style of the decorations. Statues of people looked like they didn't have details and were made of steel. Many of them had their arms over their heads and wings. Other places there were complex geometric patterns. Everywhere was metal, bronze, steel, brass or polished marble. Didn't like it much, seemed cold and empty.

Comstock's memories coughed up the term "Art Deco" to describe it before he shoved them back into the corner of his mind. Unfortunately, the name of the art style was about all Comstock knew.

He looked out the window and realized something that had been bothering him. When he was, will be here, there were lights and buildings all over. Now all he could see was rocks and fish. Was this building isolated from the rest of the city? The Accu-Vox had mentioned being locked up, could this be the prison?

He looked over the mannequins in the lobby for a moment. They were mostly dressed in work clothes, but a couple had suits on. What he was had on didn't quite fit in with the displays, but it wasn't too bad. Found out long ago, if you act like you belong someplace, people won't bother you.

There were a number of booths advertising various sundry items, more than a few of which he didn't recognize. The only thing of use he found was a newspaper declaring that Fontaine's Department store was to be converted into a prison. He was getting a sinking feeling in his stomach about where he was.

One thing he didn't get was a criminal that openly owned a large department store? It was sounding more and more like this Fontaine fella had gotten someone in power angry. The last place to search was "Ben's Bargain Basement Clothes."

Ben's Bargain Basement didn't have much in of use to him. Lots of clothes, a couple odd posters asking "Who was Atlas?", but not much else. A back office had another Audio Diary.

_Walter Anderson: Good Riddance_

_September 13, 1958 _

_Frank Fontaine is dead. Best news I've heard in a long time. Bastard had me over a barrel and he made sure I knew it every time we talked. Well, he's gone and I'm still here. It's safe to go to the cops now and I should be able to cut a deal. I know a few things they should be interested in and it should be enough to keep me out of jail._

"Huh. Sounds like Fontaine weren't the most well liked person around." No surprise there. Those with power and money usually get it at someone else's expense.

He left the store and went to the doors that led out. He stopped when heard an odd sound, something electrical. He looked around and spotted the source high in the corner of the room as it spewed sparks for several seconds before becoming quiet again. Some kind of piece of equipment, a camera maybe? Yeah, it was a camera. Someone had already put a few bullets into it and it didn't look like it worked anymore. Would have to keep an eye out for others.

He went out the doors and up a small flight of stairs to an area with various damaged displays. Signs pointing back the way he had come from declared deals and saving in the "Bargain Basement" and good food in the Red Hat Cafeteria. On the right and left sides of the room where large heavy metal doors with the word "Securis" stamped into them. An elevator with some kind of number lock on it occupied the wall opposite to the staircase.

The door on the right proclaimed it led to the Atrium and that sounded a lot more promising than Cookware which is where the door on the left led. He walked to the door to the right, but quickly discovered that sparks were shooting from the door's controls.

They have Shock Jockey here, a shot of that might open it. Just have to find it.

Maybe he would get lucky and find some Shock Jockey hidden among the pots and pans of the cookware department. Be better if he found another way out. He turned back to the other door and pulled down the lever beside the door and it rumbled to life.

End Chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 3

Booker stepped into the Cookware department after the heavy door opened. Pots, pans, advertisements and various cooking utensils greeted him. He'd been a fair cook, but he didn't recognize some of the stuff here. An electric slow cooker? A Radar Range?

As he looked around he spotted something that didn't belong. Three crates. Looked like someone had tossed one and there was broken glass scattered about. He walked over to take a closer look and sitting inside the open carte was exactly what he was looking for, a bottle of Shock Jockey Vigor.

He picked up the bottle, steeled himself for the effects before knocking back the Vigor. He had expected to start growing crystals out of his hands, but that didn't happen. Instead it was as if a flashbulb went off behind his eyes. When his vision cleared he could see a red glow fading from his hands. The stuff hadn't tasted like Shock Jockey at all. Booker looked at the bottle and realized that the small amount remaining liquid in the bottle was bright red, not purple.

"Did this spoil or something?"

*Hello? Is someone there?*

Someone close. Booker wheeled around looking for the source of the voice.

*What? How? What's happening? I don't understand.*

Couldn't be. That sounded like...

"Elizabeth?"

*Who? I can hear you. How do you know my name?*

"Elizabeth, it's me, Booker."

*Booker? No, no it can't be. I, I, you can't be him.*

"It's me Elizabeth. I'm here. I'm ok."

*Your real? You're... alive?*

"Real enough Elizabeth and very much alive." Booker looked around. "Where are you? Can't you see me?"

*I can only hear you. I don't understand what's happening. I'm, I don't know. *

Booker hated to ask anything of her, he didn't have the right, but he had to for Anna's sake.

"Elizabeth, please, I need your help. Anna's here someplace. She's just five years old." He couldn't keep the pleading tone from his voice.

*Anna? Your daughter? She's here?! How?*

"A tear opened up in her bedroom. Men in long coats took her, couldn't stop them, I… couldn't protect her." he finished sadly.

*Long coats. That sounds like Ryan's security goons.*

'What's a goon?' "Who is this Ryan?"

*Andrew Ryan. He's the man who founded Rapture. "A city without Gods and Kings, Only Man." I don't understand what he would want with your daughter. He has plenty of children here to exploit.*

The disgust and hatred in her voice was thick enough to cut with a knife.

"Can you look through one of your doors to find her?"

*I, no. I can't do that anymore. I gave that all up to… I can't open or see tears anymore.*

It sounded like Elizabeth was right behind him when she first spoke, but now it was as if she were inside his head. "Elizabeth, where are you?"

*I don't know. I can just see and hear, that's all. I wish I could tell you more.*

"Elizabeth, you've been a big help already. Now I have an idea of where to look. Let's see if we can find some Shock Jockey that works. Can you move?"

*I think, I think I move when you move. Like I'm attached to you somehow. But why would you want some Shock Jockey? Don't you have your Vigors?*

"No, don't have 'em anymore, never did in a way. The door outta here is shorted out. Figured a shot of Shock Jockey might open it."

*Hmph, now where I have I heard something like THAT before?*

"Guess we've been through this before, haven't we." he said a little sadly.

While hearing Elizabeth in his head was strange to say the least, it comforting as well in an odd way. He had someone with him with which he trusted his life, even if she was just a voice. What worried Booker was the anger in her voice.

Booker finished up his search of the crates. "Well, no Vigors here, but there is a Voxophone."

*There call them Audio Diaries here.*

"Good to know."

_Yi Suchong: Recycling ADAM_

_November 18, 1958_

_ADAM in short supply and going to be shorter. Am able to recover ADAM from corpses, but there is problem. ADAM copy memory of dead person. Other person use ADAM, they have memory of dead person. Most time useless, but with right trigger, person can see memory. Stupid people think they see ghost. Hurt sales. _

Having someone else's memories in your head? ADAM? Ghosts? "Elizabeth, do you understand this?"

"Elizabeth?"

*I, I need to need to think. I'll try to explain to later.*

Booker knew a brush off when he heard one. Had hoped that Elizabeth had stopped hating him for what he had done to her. For selling her. As he had feared, the underlying anger in her voice had been about him and he couldn't blame her. But if she helped him find Anna, it was enough. And if he could help Elizabeth, he would, no matter how she felt about him.

-Elizabeth-

'He's alive!'

A small part of her kept saying it over and over again. Her heart had soared when she realized that Booker was alive. She just wanted to hug him and not let go. She couldn't even think of what to say, to tell him. Then it all crashed moments later when he told her that Anna was in Rapture.

Rapture was no place for a little girl. Even Columbia during the Vox Revolt might have been safer. Booker hadn't wanted to ask her for help. It didn't take much to figure out why, he didn't trust her. She had killed him. She had held him under water until he was dead.

Even if it had been the only way to stop Comstock, how could he forget it? Forgive her? It didn't matter. She would help him find his daughter in any way she could. Would help *him* any way she could.

Then she heard the audio log from Suchong about ADAM copying memories. Until she had heard that, she hadn't considered what she was or who she was.

It was if she were looking at the world through Booker's eyes and heard what he heard. She didn't feel anything. Was she just a mental projection like the one she had created of Booker when she came back to Rapture? Some kind of Quantum echo? A bunch of ADAM memories? A ghost?

Well, she couldn't be a ghost at least.

But what was she?

Booker had started moving further into the store. He walked around a corner and barely dodged back out of sight before a wall mounted camera caught him in the red glare of its light.

'Guess I don't have to warn him about the security cameras.'

The camera focused on the spot Booker had been for almost a minute before it shifted its view. Booker took a quick look around the corner and ducked back before the camera could catch sight of him. The camera had been placed so no one could walk across the area without being seen.

"Not getting by that thing."

*Booker, could you look up?* This must be Fontaine's Department store. It was the only place in Rapture she knew of that had those lighting sconces. *There, those light fixture on wall, they should be able to hold you, but we need to find you an Air Grabber.*

As she said "Air Grabber" Booker lifted up something in his left hand.

*A Skyhook? Where did you get that?*

"Something Lutece left me. They must have thought it would make the experiment more interesting." Booker stated in a slightly irritated tone.

*Well, it's certainly convenient that you have it.*

"Elizabeth, why did you ask me to look up?"

*I can only see what you see. It's like I'm looking through your eyes. I guess, I should have told you earlier.*

He was silent for a moment before he responded. "That's... different. Now, let's see if that thing can hold me."

A quick run, a jump, they were in the air and then the familiar clash of metal on metal as the Skyhook latched onto the light fixture.

"Whew. Still feels the same." Booker hung for a moment, but there was the sound of metal creaking and then the statue shifted. "Time to go."

Booker dismounting quickly and landed safely out of range of the camera. He stood still for several moments and muttered in a pained voice "Going to have to be more careful if I do that again."

*What's wrong?* she asked.

"Caught a couple bullets when they took Anna. Got lucky, nothing important got hit, but not healed up yet. Just have to make sure I land on my right leg next time."

'He's wounded and didn't say anything? That was just like him.'

*Can you see a Circus of Values?*

"Circus a what?"

*Circus of Values. Rapture's version of a Dollar Bill machine. They have a big clown face on them. You should be able to buy a Health Kit from one.*

While Booker searched, she tried to figure out what to tell him and how to do it.

"That must be it." Booker announced, interrupting her thoughts. "And some doors. Maybe another way out of here." As he limped over to the Circus machine he started digging around in a heavy leather bag.

*What's that?*

"Planned ahead this time." Booker explained. "Food, some money, extra ammo. Columbia would have been easier if I had taken some supplies."

He held up a silver coin. "Think this will work?"

*It should. These things seem to take anything valuable. Rings, necklaces, even women's shoes.*

"Shoes?" Booker asked, as he bought a pair of Med Kits.

*Rapture is based on unregulated capitalism. Greed is a virtue here. These machines take nearly anything of value so they don't miss a sale. Everyone is out for themselves and everything has a price. Even children.*

Elizabeth noticed that Booker's hand clenched when she mentioned children.

'Stupid. Make him more worried about his daughter than he already is.'

*Do you know what the date is?*

Booker used the first of the health kits as he responded. "Early 1959, far as I can tell. I think we're in a prison they made out of a department store."

More than a year until Jack arrives and Sally is free. *We are. Ryan turned this place into a prison and exiled Fontaine's supporters to it. Do you know anything about Fontaine?*

"Not much. Just that he was supposed to be rich, a criminal and dead."

*Dead? Hardly. Have you heard of Atlas?*

Booker thought a moment before responding. "I saw some posters with the name Atlas on them, but that's it."

*Fontaine is Atlas. The son of a bitch faked his own death and is playing at being a "hero of the people" to take down Ryan.*

"Take it you don't like this Fontaine much."

*He's a monster.*

Booker tested his leg. "Much better." He walked over and tried one of the doors. It opened a couple inches and hit something. Trying to open the other door produced the same result.

"Must be barricaded from the other side. Any ideas on where to go next Elizabeth?"

*That door with the "Employees Only" sign looks interesting.*

Booker walked behind the counter and knelt down to look at the floor to look at something. "Drag marks. At least two sets, probably more. No blood though."

He stood back up and cautiously went through door into a large stock room. Three bodies, two men and one woman, had been laid out to the right of the door. Two had masks on. Elizabeth wished the last one did too. His flesh looked as it had melted and blue crystals erupted from his head and hands. Odd budges under his cloths suggest more crystal growths.

"What the hell? Elizabeth, do you know what happened to this guy?"

*Vigor overdose. That's happens to splicers when the use too much. Remember Slate?*

"Yeah, those crystals he had growin' on him. But he must a drunk a gallon of Shock Jockey." Booker paused a moment. "I didn't have anything like that on me in Columbia, did I?"

*No, I guess in small amounts there isn't a problem. It would probably be a good idea to keep Vigor use, or Plasmids as they call them here, to a minimum if you can.*

"You called him a splicer."

*That's the local term for people that use Plasmids. It refers to their genetics being spliced with new abilities.*

Most of the room was filled with shelves that held boxes of dishes and cooking utensils. As Booker searched, Elizabeth decided to tell him.

*Booker, does it bother you? That I'm just a voice?"

"After flying cities, shooting fire from my hands and going through tears, it takes a lot to bother me. Guess my notions of normal aren't very normal anymore."

'How can he do so calm about it?' She decided that it was best to just say it and get it over with. *Booker, I don't know if I'm real. I may be just a bunch of memories you think is Elizabeth."

"Don't think so. I got plenty of memories and they don't talk or act like you."

*Booker, I, I'm dead. I died here in Rapture, weeks, maybe months ago.*

Booker stopped moving and looked up.

"I know you died Elizabeth." He said in an emotion filled voice. "But I know you're alive. You're real. I can't prove it, but please believe me."

*I would like to believe you, but I don't know how I could be alive or real.*

Booker closed his eyes, turning her world black. "If you only exist in my mind, then tell me how many fingers I am holding up."

*Booker, your eyes are closed. I can't see anything.* she stated in a slightly irritated voice.

He opened his eyes. "Three fingers. If you were just in my head or something, you would've known that, right?"

*I, you have a point there.*

'Why is he so sure that I'm real, that I'm Elizabeth? Does he know something? Was I wrong and he trusts me? How could he forgive me after what I did? '

As she thought, Booker entered a small office and found an audio diary.

_Al Rockford: Sending Another Little Sister_

_February 8, 1959_

_John, I sending a new Little Sister down to you. Yeah, I know you don't like 'em. This one isn't lookin too good already and if Atlas's people see her it will be a PR nightmare. And that's something we don't need with the fighting going on. Just let her do her job. _

"Little Sisters? What are those?"

*Little girls with some kind of Sea Slug imbedded in them that produces ADAM.*

"ADAM? The other dairy mentioned ADAM."

*ADAM is the stuff they use to make Plasmids and Vigors with. I really don't understand how it works, but it's worth its weight in gold down here. Fink just used the Sea Slugs to get it. But Fontaine and Ryan use the Little Sisters to increase... output.* A thought struck her. No, they couldn't have.

"Elizabeth, what's wrong?"

*God Damn them.* How could she tell him? *Booker, they may have turned Anna into a Little Sister.*

"Is she alright, can it be undone?"

*She's physically ok. They do something to the Little Sisters' minds. She won't know you. She can be saved Booker, just... not right now.*

"What do you mean 'not right now'?" Booker demanded.

*I don't think the process to safely extract the Sea Slug has been invented yet. It will be, but not yet. I'm sorry Booker.* How could she have missed this! Why hadn't she seen either Booker or Anna in Rapture? Why hadn't she even known that Booker was alive?

'Just like with the Big Daddy that killed me. I didn't look, that's why.'

*Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, they didn't make her into a Little Sister.*

"I hope your wrong, Elizabeth. Let's go find her."

Booker stormed to the door and yanked it open only to find six men in long coats pointing guns at him.

One of them smiled and said in a southern drawl "Well, if it ain't Booker DeWitt. How nice of ya to show up."

End Chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 4

-Booker–

Booker froze. That was usually a very bad thing for him to do. But in this case it was a very good thing as it saved his life. He had six people with guns pointing at him. He knew that any move he made would be his last.

*Don't move! They think you're someone else!*

Someone else? Worry about that later. These people had the same kind of coats on as the people who took Anna.

The smiling man with the pistol continued "Now if you would just put yo're gun and bag on the floor."

Reluctantly, he carefully lowered his pistol and placed it on the floor, followed by his leather bag.

To his surprise the men relaxed some as he stood back up. "Now that wasn't hard, was it? Yo're lucky I recognized you on the security camera. Otherwise we woulda filled you with holes. Yah know yo're not supposed to be down here."

Several of the men moved to pick up Booker's pistol and bag. The smiling man motioned Booker to move back. One of the men took special interest in his pistol saying it had been awhile since he had seen one like it.

The smiling man shook his head. "You and yo're antiques DeWitt."

"So what are you going to do with me?" Booker asked.

"Kick ya out of course. Unless yo're working for Atlas." The man pretended to look suspiciously at Booker.

"No, no. Not working for him." *Tell him your searching for a young girl.* "Looking for someone, a young girl."

"Not gonna find any down here, unless they're Little Sisters." There was a bitter tone in the man's voice as he mentioned the Little Sisters. "Sam, I'm going to run him downstairs so they can ship him back to the city. You continue the sweep. I'll wait for you by the elevators."

"Ok, DeWitt, let's get going." He motioned back the way Booker had come.

The two walked for a minute or so before the smiling man spoke again.

"So where you been DeWitt? Spend'n all your time at Steinman's or something? You look 20 years younger. Damn near didn't recognize you."

*Tell him yes. And that's why your down here, you need to pay off the bill.* Elizabeth sounded almost like she was embarrassed.

"Yeah, spent a lot of time at Steinman's, takin' this job helps pay off the bill."

"Come on DeWitt, Ah know we're not best buddies or anythin', but we have closed a bar or two. Or did all the booze make yah forget my name is John."

"Sorry, been a bit difficult lately, John."

"Ah know why yo're down here. Yo're still lookin' for that Sally girl. Two birds with one stone."

*Agree with him.* Elizabeth said softly.

Something was definitely up with her. "Yeah, still looking. The other girl I'm looking for is about 5 or 6 years old. Dark brown hair, blue eyes. Her name is Anna."

"Like I said, only girls down here are Little Sisters." John paused a moment. "Don't tell anyone, but I really hate it, what their doin' to those poor girls. Wish I'd never come here, but little late ta change my mind now."

He stood aside as John hit the control that opened the Securis door. And they walked to the elevator he had seen earlier. He stood back as John punched in the code to open it.

'4-0-7-6'

"Better call down and let them know your comin'. Some of the guys down there like to shoot first and not ask questions later." John explained as he pulled out something from his pocket.

"Hey Alex, sending somebody down. Sullivan was right, DeWitt did come down here."

He slipped around in back of the man as he spoke.

A tinny voice come from the device in John's hand. +_DeWitt? Can't be him. I saw his body two weeks ago. Big Daddy put a drill through him._+

John didn't get a chance to respond before he brought the Skyhook down on the back of his head and he dropped to the ground.

*He's still alive?* Elizabeth asked. She almost seemed surprised.

The voice on the device kept on calling out for John.

"Yeah, just knocked him out. Tryin' to avoid killing unless I have to. Got enough blood on my hands and I'd rather not have more without good reason. " He retrieved the man's gun, a heavy revolver, 20 rounds of ammo, some money and a health kit.

*Pick up the short wave.*

"The what?"

*The radio. It may prove useful.*

"Wonders of the future." He muttered as he picked up the device and examined it. It was only a moment before he figured out how to work it and the voice on the other end cut off mid word.

He went over to the elevator and hit the "Open" button and stepped into the cage.

*Where are we going?*

"Well, can't stay here, can't go down. That leaves up."

*I guess I need to explain a few thing.* Elizabeth said as the doors closed and the elevator started its assent.

"If you think you do, but let's wait until we have more time."

The anger had left Elizabeth's voice. Despite the remark she had made earlier selling children, she truly sounded as if she were concerned about him. It was what replaced the anger in Elizabeth's voice that concerned him now though. She was ashamed.

'What did you do Elizabeth?'

–Elizabeth-

'How am I going to explain what I did?' she thought as they elevator rose to the next floor. Would telling him the truth shatter what little trust Booker had in her? She didn't want to lie to him. Couldn't lie to him.

Booker cautiously exited the elevator into a lobby of some sort. There were two bodies on the floor. On the left side of the lobby was another Securis door, but even from a distance she could it was heavily damaged and would not open. There where various advertisements of ladies goods such a perfume and makeup. Signs declared this to be the entrance to "Ladies Tip Top Fashions".

Booker walked over and examined the two corpses, but didn't bother trying to search them. He seemed to be looking at something.

*What's wrong?*

"Color's wrong, too white." He reached down and turned over the body of the woman he had been examining over. "Nothing." He seemed both puzzled and a bit worried.

"I don't understand. I know they're pale, but this is Rapture. There's no natural sunlight down here.*

"There's pale, and then there's white. And these people are white because there is no blood in them."

*No blood? How do you, oh.* Booker certainly did have a history of producing dead bodies.

"When you've been dead awhile, the blood drains down the lowest part of the body. That didn't happen here. Also there are these small holes. That's probably where they drained her." Booker's voice betrayed his distaste.

He stood up. "So unless there is a vampire running around down here, someone probably drained these people of blood."

*Really Booker, vampires?*

"After seeing ghosts and the dead coming back to life, I'm keeping an open mind."

She almost told him that Lady Comstock had not been a ghost before she realized he hadn't been totally serious. It was almost of if he was joking with her.

"Then there are these marks on the floor. Footprints?"

Unbidden, the Big Daddy killing her flashed through her mind. *They're from a Big Daddy. The Big Daddies act as protectors for the Little Sisters. They're a little like a Handyman and about as tough.*

"This is getting better all the time."

He stood up and checked the counters for anything of use, but came up empty. "Anything you want to see before we leave?"

*No, I guess it's time to look at ladies dresses.*

"Lovely"

Booker went over to the Securis door and opened it. Unlike the Cooking Department the floor below, there was ample evidence of fighting here. Racks of cloths had been knocked over, some lights were broken, burn marks from plasmid use and bullet holes were scatter about. There didn't seem to be anyone around at the moment though. Elizabeth noticed that this ladies department wasn't nearly as fancy as the one in the other building. 'Must be where the average people shop.'

"Hey! I thought I heard something" a man's voice called out.

'Guess there's someone here after all.'

"So what Ricky? You hear crap all the time." another voice responded.

Booker quickly ducked behind a rack of cloths as footsteps approached their location.

"Anyone there? Come out, come out wherever you are!" Ricky called out in a broken sing song. "I know somebody's there!" Ricky suddenly screamed.

As the splicer walked around one side of the clothes rack, Booker quietly circled around behind him on the other side.

"I can smell you! Come out! Now!" he screamed just before the Skyhook slammed into him.

*I see you're still very good at being a thug.*

"Thanks a lot" he whispered back.

*Booker, you're going to need to be very good at being a thug to survive here.*

The splicer's only weapon had been a club. But he did have some money on him which Booker took.

"Hey, Ricky, where are you? Ricky?" called the other voice.

Booker shifted over a few racks and headed deeper into the store before stopping. This splicer wasn't dumb like Ricky and kept quite when he realized something was wrong. She wished she had her Peeping Tom plasmid so she could see where he was. Booker had a different idea. He dropped to the floor and looked under the racks of cloths.

The splicer was about even with them, roughly 15 feet over, moving very carefully to avoid making noise. Then there was a sound of the hammer of a pistol softly being cocked.

'And he's armed. What's Booker going to do?'

The fact the splicer was armed didn't seem to deter Booker the slightest and he worked his way around the back of the other splicer as he had the first, but stayed some distance away. She knew that getting too close would alert the splicer to their presence.

When he was in position, Booker quickly stepped out behind the splicer, his gun aimed at the back of his head.

"Don't move and you'll live. Try anything and you won't." Booker announced.

The splicer, who was wearing padded sports gear, froze. "You work for Ryan?" he asked.

"I work for myself. Now put down the gun."

"Easy meat!" the man yelled as he spun around.

Booker's gun roared twice and the splicer went down. "Damn fool."

*Booker, he made his own choice.* She told him gently.

He didn't reply as he quickly searched the body finding some ammo and jewelry.

Booker silently resumed his search of the area and found where the two men apparently set up camp behind a counter. He looked at the mess a moment and dismissed it, choosing instead to search the counter and discovered an Audio Diary.

"Huh, Walter Anderson. Should be worth listening to." Booker mused.

*Why?*

"I found another one from him earlier. Worked for Fontaine and didn't like it. Was going to try to make a deal with the cops."

_Walter Anderson: No Good_

_October 18, 1958_

_They didn't want to talk. I have all this dirt and they don't want to talk to me. I worked for Fontaine and that was it. Now I'm stuck down here in this hellhole. Had to start splicing just to survive. There's gotta be some way outa this place. I ain't dying down here. _

"Sounds like his plan didn't work out so good."

*Ryan hated Fontaine. Anyone working for him got dumped down here even if they hadn't done anything. Unless they were extremely useful, like Suchong was.*

"Suchong? Same one from the audio diary downstairs?" asked Booker he resumed searching the store.

*The same. He's an expert in Plasmids, ADAM and making Little Sisters. He had a deal with Fink for awhile.*

"Fink? Yeah, that would fit."

*They traded information and stole from each other.*

"Humph, typical. Guess I will have to 'convince' this Suchong to cure Anna."

*No, he's dead. Killed by a Big Daddy."

"Then how can Anna be cured?" worry filled Booker's voice.

*There's someone else. Tenenbaum is her name. She went into hiding after she had a change of heart. She will come up with a cure, I just don't know when.*

They had come to a series of changing booths. They found a body, but nothing else until they got to the last room when she finally got to see what Booker looked like in a mirror.

*You look good, younger, but those clothes? Are those the same ones you had in Columbia?*

The face in the mirror twitched in surprise and Booker looked down at himself. "What's the matter with these clothes?"

*Never mind.* 'Men!' As Booker looked back at the mirror she noticed something seemed off.

*Booker, does the back wall look right to you?*

"No, no it doesn't. You think there is something behind it?"

*Possibly, Fontaine likes his secrets even more than the Vox.*

Booker searched, but didn't find a mechanism that would open the door. He then looked around the area for something.

"That counter. It has a clear view of this booth."

He walked behind the counter and quickly found a switch. Pressing it produced a slight buzzing sound and the back wall of the changing booth swung open.

*Think we'll find a poster of your friend Sally in there?*

"She wasn't a friend, just someone I knew." Booker said as he pushed the door all the way open.

The room wasn't that large, about 10 by 12 feet. It was occupied by a table and three chairs. On the table were piles of pictures, a box of pistol ammunition and a familiar bottle of yellow liquid that glowed with a light of its own. Booker walked over to the table and picked up the bottle.

"This will be a big help."

A moment later her vision flashed yellow as Booker drank the Shield Infusion.

"Tastes a bit different than the one in Columbia."

Booker picked up the ammo and examined the photographs on the table. They were of a half a dozen different women.

*That pile on the top right. I think that's Jasmine Jolene, an "exotic dancer" over in Fort Frolic. Rumor has it she was sleeping with Ryan.*

Booker picked up the indicated pile and looked through them. Several showed the dancer performing on stage, others shopping, one putting on makeup and more showing her daily life. One showed Jasmine practically draped over a man with a thin mustache.

*Stop, the man with Jasmine, that's Ryan.*

Booker studied the photograph for a moment then put it down and looked through the other piles of photographs. They all had names on them. Anderson, Lei, McClintock, Smith, Campton. All the women where attractive and had at least one picture of them with Ryan. "Fontaine did his research."

*But why are these pictures here?*

"Someone would take the pictures and drop them here to be picked up by someone else. The people taking the pictures were probably women."

Booker looked around a moment. "Seems like a good place to talk if you want." He told as he sat down in one of the chairs.

*I don't know where to start. How to start.*

"At the beginning. After I…. was no longer there."

'Is that how he thinks of it, that he just, left?'

*After you, were no longer there, all the realities that Comstock existed in and the ones where he took Anna from ceased to exist. All the other Elizabeth's, they became a part of me. Everything they experienced, everything they felt. I don't know how to describe it.*

Booker closed his eyes for a moment before telling her to go on.

*I don't know how long I stood there. A minute, a month, a year? Just waiting to fade away as they did, but I didn't. Then the Luteces came and told me that one Comstock was still alive.*

"Comstock's ALIVE?!"

*He's dead. It's over. I ended it. This Comstock had left his own reality and wasn't erased like all the others. But he was the only one.* She was surprised at Booker's reaction. She had expected him to be surprised, but he had sounded scared as well.

"That's why you came to Rapture, to kill this last Comstock."

*Yes. After you.. died* There, I said it. *something happened to my Tear abilities. It was almost like the syphon was running again. I could sometimes see behind the doors, but only for a few moments at a time and it was difficult to open tears again. Making new tears was even harder, if I could do it at all. I arrived here in early October of 1958. It didn't take me long to find him, but he wasn't Comstock anymore.*

"Was calling himself Booker DeWitt." he said with a hint of disgust.

*Yes. He didn't even remember being Comstock. The trip through the tear had affected his memory. He acted like you did after your wife died. Drinking, gambling. He was even a Private Investigator and had an office that looked like yours. He was pretending to be you. All to hide from what he had done.*

"What did he want to hide from?" Why did Booker sound like he already might know the answer?

*When he went to take Anna away, the Booker from that reality tried to stop him, as you did. He had almost gotten Anna back from Comstock when the tear closed.*

*She was killed.*

Booker closed his eyes for a moment. "Her head was on Comstock's side when the tear closed."

*How did you know that?*

"I… remember all the other Bookers. They arrested him for his daughter's death. Hung himself in jail two days later."

'That's what he meant when he said that he had a lot of memories.' *Booker, I'm sorry.*

"Don't be. It's a small price to pay to make sure there is no Comstock."

*I guess it is. When I realized that Comstock had forgotten what he had done, I couldn't stand it. I was going to make him remember what he had done and make him pay for it.*

*I didn't care who got hurt in the process.* She couldn't keep the shame from her voice.

*Comstock had started caring for an orphan, a young girl named Sally. I, I used her to get at Comstock. She had been kidnapped and turned into a Little Sister. Comstock wanted to find her, so I used her as a lure to get him into Fontaine's Department Store. I was able to trick Comstock into remembering who he was, what he had done to Anna. And set it up so a Big Daddy would kill him.*

*I enjoyed it Booker. I enjoyed every moment of it. Watching the drill tear through Comstock felt GOOD.* She paused a moment *I never really understood what you said in the Hall of Hero's about taking pleasure in killing. I wish I still didn't.*

She didn't even try to keep the disgust and anger from her voice for this next part. *After Comstock was dead, I just walked away. I was so damn Happy with myself, I didn't even give Sally a second thought. I used her the same way that Comstock used me and I. Just. Walked. Away.*

*After that, the Big Daddy attacked and killed me. Well, I guess you could say he half killed me.*

"Half killed you? I don't understand."

*After all the other Elizabeth's vanished, I discovered I existed as a quantum superposition. It's like I was in two places at the same time. I was in Rapture, but at the same time I was someplace else. The Big Daddy killed the me that was in Rapture, but I was still alive in the Sea of Doors. After the me in Rapture died, I went hid in Paris.*

"Paris?"

*Not the real Paris. One I created in my head. Imaginary. I pretended to be happy there.*

"But it didn't last." Booker said knowingly.

*No, it didn't. I started to realize what I had done. I really don't remember it all, just bits and prices, but I decided that I had to go back and fix things. Pay my debt to Sally and help the rest of the Little Sisters. Bring down the whole damn place and stop it for good. So I made a plan. I can't remember much of it, but it worked. Or will work, it hasn't played out yet.*

"What was this plan?"

*I must have realized I couldn't directly change anything given my state. Ryan was going to win. Even if I was somehow able to kill him, Fontaine would just take over. And if I killed him someone else would follow him, it would never stop. But Fontaine had a way to beat Ryan. He had someone *made* that he could control and use him to kill Ryan. His name is Jack. I hijacked Fontaine's plan so Jack will save the Little Sisters, gain his own freedom and kill Fontaine.*

*But in order for everything to work, Fontaine needed the control phrase, what he called "The Ace in the Hole" for Jack. The only way to make sure he had this control phrase was return to Rapture and give it to him personally. So I came back here and gave it to him knowing he would kill me the moment he got it.*

*And, he did.*

"And you couldn't you use a tear to distract or escape Fontaine?"

*No. When I returned to Rapture, I fell out of the superposition state. I became a normal girl, no tears, no looking behind the doors. I even had a pinky.*

"And that was the last thing you remember?"

*No, I had a dream I guess. Everything was bright and shiny. Then it's like I woke up and I could see through your eyes.*

Booker was quiet.

*What are you thinking?*

"My gut's telling me something, but my head hasn't figured it out yet."

Booker being thoughtful was a change. Part of her was still thought of him swinging from Skylines. But it had been five years for him. She rather liked the more thoughtful Booker.

*Do you think killing the last Comstock was the right thing to do?*

"Don't know. He might have just rotted down here for the rest of his life. But what if he remembered and became Comstock? Took over this place? It would have started all over again." He paused for several moments and looked down at the floor. "Revenge rarely does anyone a good turn Elizabeth. Wish I had been able to tell you that instead of you having to learn it yourself."

*I don't know if I would have listened.*

"But you came back to help the girl, and to put a stop to this Little Sister thing. And you paid for it. Paid with everything you had."

*We DeWitts, we pay our debts.*

"That we do." He said with both pride and sadness in his voice. "Wish we would learn not to rack up such big ones."

*That's something you can teach Anna when we get her back.*

"Best be along to that."

Chapter 4 End


	5. Chapter 5

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 5

–Booker–

He stepped out of the hidden room and back out into Tip Top Ladies Fashions. The talk with Elizabeth had cleared the air a great deal. Things weren't back to the way they had been before, but he felt they were much better now. Part of him had wanted to yell at her for the things she had done. But he realized that the reason he was angry was because she had made much the same mistakes as he had.

And he hadn't been there to help her avoid those mistakes.

Part of him was proud at what she had done to fix her mistakes. Not that he felt any right to be proud, he still felt so anyway. Elizabeth had knowingly went to her death to help the Little Sisters. Took a lot to do that. He wished she hadn't made the mistakes, then she wouldn't have died to fix them.

Like father, like daughter.

He looked around the room and walked over to the counters and cash registers near the main door. Neither spoke as he searched. The registers had been emptied long ago, but he did find a bottle of Salts which he added to his inventory. He went over to try the door that had an "Employees Only" sign on it.

Elizabeth broke the silence first. *Booker, try to save as much ammo and Salts as you can. There's not much down here and I don't think you want to use the normal method for replacing Salt, or EVE as it's called here. Or use the Plasmids and Tonics.*

"Why is that?"

*You don't drink them, you have to inject them and it doesn't seem to be very sanitary. I saw someone get blood poisoning from it.*

"Avoiding needles sounds good. What are those Tonics you mentioned?"

*Tonics alter a person's body to give it some new ability or improve a natural one. The Infusions are like a Tonic I suppose. There are Gene Tonics to make you stronger, faster, protect you from fire, increase your intelligence, even regrow hair.*

He tried the door, but it seemed to be jammed. "Seem to use a lot of this ADAM here."

*The economy is more or less based on ADAM. Which is why they kidnap little girls and turn them into ADAM factories.*

"Sounds a bit like how Fink used people."

*In some ways it's worse. You can do most anything down here so long as you have the money and don't challenge Ryan.* Somehow it sounded as if she had some personal experience with how bad Rapture could be.

He backed up and just as he was about to try and kick the door in when the radio came to life.

+_Hey, DeWitt, or whatever your name is. Can you hear me?_\+ It was the same voice John had been speaking to earlier.

Booker spoke into the radio. "Yeah, I can hear you. What do you want?"

+_John's mighty upset at you. He doesn't like being suckered._+

"Tell John that he would be a lot more upset if I had split his head open."

+_That's why I'm talking to you. It's clear you don't work for Atlas and you're not a prisoner, so I thought I would give you chance to come down and talk. Lot easier than deal'in with the splicers up there._+

"Don't think I will."

+_Didn't hurt to try. One question though. Why you pretending to be DeWitt?_+

"I'm not pretending to be him, he was pretending to be me."

+_What? That doesn't make any sense._+

He put the radio away while muttering "Welcome to my life pal." His foot slammed against the stubborn door and it gave way.

*I wonder why they tried to get you downstairs to talk. They didn't act like that before.*

"Easier to lure me into an ambush then it is to send someone up here to get me."

He walked through the now open door. To his right were what looked to be a number of offices. To the left a small stock room filled with racks of women's cloths. It didn't look like anyone had been in here yet.

*I think someone got to wondering why there are two Booker DeWitt's in Rapture.*

"Someone's interested at least. Maybe that Sullivan guy John mentioned."

*Sullivan is the head of Rapture Security. Comstock was a friend of his.*

"Great. Office first?"

*Yes.*

"I'd hoped to stay unnoticed for longer than this. At least the entire city isn't out to kill me." The first desk hadn't yielded anything of use and he moved on to the second.

*Day's still young.*

In the second desk he found a wallet with 50 dollars and an Audio Diary.

He spent a few moments closely examining the bills. "Ryan put his own picture on the money? Does he have big statues of himself around?"

*A few. He seems to favor plastering his face all over the place though. Ryan, Fink, Comstock and Suchong all seem to be very big on self-aggrandiztion.*

Not at all surprised by that.

_Alana Schmidt : Shipping Errors_

_September 09, 1958_

_These delivery people are really getting on my nerves. Half the time they bring something two weeks late or it's for someone else. This time we got lucky though. A crate from Suchong Laboratories. I stuck it behind Rack Three in the storeroom until it cools off. Don't let Grace know about it, she'll keep it for herself. Bound to be something worth a lot of money to the right people._

*That was right before Fontaine faked his death. That crate of Suchong's is probably still there.*

"Let's finish up here first. What's this? Cheeky Pep Bar?"

*A kind of candy bar, but it contains some EVE.*

It sounded rather unappetizing at the moment. "Maybe when I need it." He said as he put the Pep Bar down.

The other two desks proved to be empty and they moved to a door with a frosted glass window in it.

"Looks like the manager's office."

He opened the door to find a woman's corpse hanging by a rope around her neck. *And the managers still in.* Elizabeth said with a sad tone in her voice.

He didn't have the heart to search the body, but the desk was another matter. It surrendered some potato chips, 35 dollars and a set of keys.

As he munched on the chips, he walked back to the store room and located Rack Three.

He had to push aside the whole rack to get at the small crate, but discovered a large green and stain on the floor beneath it.

"Something leaked." He said as the pulled the crate out and pried it open.

*Some idiot stored it upside down. And Ryan thinks he got the best and the brightest. Phff*

There were four plain bottles in the case each with a number on them. Booker picked up the first bottle and found it empty. But the dried remains of the Vigor were a familiar dull green color. "Think this might have been a Charge Vigor. Woulda been nice." The next two bottles had dried traces of red in them. The last bottle was full of a glowing blue liquid. He carefully put it aside to continue searching the crate.

*Not going to drink it?* Elizabeth asked in a half serious tone.

"Like to have some idea what I drinking first. For all I know that could be something to turn your hair blue. Ah, papers."

He looked at the papers, but they were stained with dried vigor making them hard to read. The last page was the one he wanted. Reading aloud "Lot Number 118, Security Bypass. Causes security systems infected with the Plasmid to ignore the user for a short period of time. Development of an upgrade to make the effect permanent underway."

*Sound like it could be a real help with the security systems down here. Too bad it doesn't work on people.*

"Better than nothing at this point." He opened the bottle and drank it in one go. His hands sparkled a bright blue for a moment then faded. "Well, it at least they make them smoother down here. Doesn't seem to use much Salt either."

Elizabeth didn't see anything worth searching and he agreed, so they headed to the three sets of double doors that led out of the store. Booker paused to lock all but one of the doors using the keys he had recovered in the office. As he did so, he answered Elizabeth's unasked question. "Will slow anyone after us down and concentrates them in one spot when they come through the one open door."

He slipped through the last door and into a small promenade lined by about a dozen small stores. Down the center were abandoned booths, chairs, overturned tables and large containers that held long dead plants. A huge window above their heads looked out into the black sea. Off to one side there were lights and the tops of tall buildings. Rapture.

He quickly hunted cover when he heard yelling and saw several figures moving around in front of one of the stores.

"Kill e'm! Kill e'm! Break his bones!"

As he moved from one piece of cover to another he could see that two men and one woman had another man on the ground and were brutally kicking him. Booker had just gotten into position behind the attackers when one of them got on his knees and started stabbing the beaten man with a knife.

Distracted as they were, Booker was able to swiftly render the woman and standing man unconscious without the kneeling man even being aware. Then he drew his heavy revolver as the last splicer continued to stab the corpse.

*Are you going to kill him?* Elizabeth asked with a concerned tone in her voice. Booker had to admit it did tempt him somewhat. Instead he used the pistol to cuff the splicer alongside his head and knocked him down.

He stepped back and leveled the pistol. The man glared at him with insane eyes and he wondered if he shouldn't have had knocked him out along with the others, but he needed information. He had really wanted the man the three had been beating. Saving the man's life would certainly have made him willing to talk.

"Tell me what I want to know and you can go."

The splicer continued to glare at him, but responded. "Whada want to know?"

"Are there any Little Sisters down here?"

The splicer wiped some of the blood spatter off his face. "One or two. Not stupid enough to tangle with no Big Daddy to get at one."

"Where are they?" Booker didn't like the way the splicer's left hand was twitching or the fact he was starting to smile.

"In the walls. Don'cha know anything?"

The splicer's smile was even bigger now and Booker shifted position to put a little more distance between them.

"Last question. Any of the Little Sisters had dark brown hair and blue eyes?" Something told his that this splicer was not the real threat, he was a distraction. He turned quickly and barely avoided being hit by a heavy pipe.

This splicer was over six and a half feet tall and every inch was muscle. The man's face was scared and the right side looked infected and swollen.

The splicer roared and swung again and he had to jump back to avoid being hit. He fired twice, staggering the attacking splicer. A single heavy blow from the Skyhook finished him. As he turned, his Shield was stuck by a knife thrown by the other splicer. Despite the knife failing to do any damage, the splicer charged at him.

Left with no choice, he put a bullet between those insane eyes.

"What the hell is wrong with these people?" he angrily asked as he reloaded.

*Overuse of ADAM or being locked up down here. Many of them are no longer sane.* Elizabeth responded. *But the sane ones can be the most dangerous.*

He quickly searched both the dead and unconscious finding a single round for his pistol, three shotgun shells and eight dollar coins. Then he headed towards the first small store, "Robert's Confectionaries" to search it.

*Booker, you never told me what happened after you died.*

"Guess I didn't." he thought a moment. "Not much to tell. I woke up and it was October 8th 1893. Anna was in her crib safe and sound. No Lutece, no Comstock and was 19 years old again, like none of it ever happened."

Robert's didn't have anything of use, so he headed to the next store, "The Smoker's Emporium".

*So what did you do?*

"Started cleaning. You know how bad it was."

*That's Not what I meant. You had people you owed money too.*

"Oh, them. They sent a couple people to break some of my fingers as a reminder to pay. I sent them back with broken arms. Two days later I gave them their money. They wanted more and had to break a few legs to make sure they didn't bother me or Anna again."

*Where did you get the money?*

The Emporium had nothing worthwhile and the smell from the tobacco bothered him. "Put my pistol in hock and visited the track."

Elizabeth's voice was shocked and angry at the same time. *You where gambling? Didn't you learn anything?!*

"Not really gambling when you got a good idea which horse is going to win." Booker said as he walked to "The Sugar Shope". "Couple of the other Booker's remembered the race results. Got nine out of ten right."

*Still, that was a big risk to take.* She said archly.

"I was careful. I did a dry run first to make sure the memories came close to what happened. Last time I gambled, unless it was part of a cover."

He was about to leave "The Sugar Shope" when he spotted an Audio Diary under an overturned table. The woman on it spoke with an accent, Greek maybe?

_Eva Andros: Supplies_

_December 21, 1958_

_"Bob, I think they know I have been keeping things. I moved them to the green room and reset the code to 8726. Please be careful my love. They grow more suspicious all the time. If we are caught you know what will happen."_

"Hope Bob had better luck than Eva did. Found what was left of her earlier." He explained. "She had used some Shock Jockey to try and defend herself. Didn't work."

*You think she might have had some Shock Jockey in with her supplies?*

"Worth checking if we can find this Green Room store." He said as he moved to the next store, It was "Madam's Intimate Apparel". He hesitated before going in.

*Booker, I'm a grown woman, not a child. There isn't anything in there I'm not old enough to see.*

He shrugged and opened the doors to walk in. Unlike the statues around the building, the mannequins in the store were quite realistic and were often clad in things that left little to the imagination. He did his best to ignore them as he searched the store.

*Booker, I never realized you were such a prude." Elizabeth said in an amused tone. *Women's clothes are a lot more comfortable now than they were 40 years ago. Undergarments especially. I never really realized how uncomfortable that corset was at times.*

The front of the store turned up nothing and he went to the double doors towards to rear. A sign over them proclaimed "For Her pleasure and His." Didn't like the sound of that. He opened the doors and was stunned by what he saw.

Mannequins dressed in leather straps, chains, masks and holding whips, handcuffs or other things he didn't really want to understand.

*Booker, I take it back.* Elizabeth said in a shocked voice. *I'm old enough for this.*

"Don't think I'm old enough for it." He replied as he slammed the doors and turned his back to them.

For some reason she started laughing softly and he couldn't stop from joining in.

Wasn't really funny, but it was. All they had been through and they could still be embarrassed by something like that. In moments both were laughing as hard as they could. After a minute so the laughter died out. He sat on the floor, his back against the door and neither of them spoke for a long time.

*Booker, I missed you.* Elizabeth said softly.

"Thought about you every day Elizabeth. I wondered what happened to you. If you hated me."

*What a pair we make." she said sadly. "So afraid the other hates us, that they can't be forgive.*

Booker thought a few moments. "Maybe, the one we need to forgive is ourselves, just a little. Enough so we don't hurt others. Friends, family."

*You remember Comstock, don't you?*

It really didn't sound like a question to him, but he hesitated before answering.

"Yeah, I do."

*And it scares you.*

"I'm scared I could turn into him. That I will treat Anna as Comstock did you."

Elizabeth took several moments before answering. *When I came back from Paris, I was unsure, scared really. So I created a Booker in my head to help me. Someone to talk to. To give me advice.*

"Did he give good advice?"

*Yes, he did. And the best advice he gave was to "trust yourself". Booker, YOU need to trust yourself.*

As Elizabeth spoke he stood up and walked to the door. "Good advice from someone I trust. Hard to beat that."

–Elizabeth–

She hadn't lost Booker. He trusted her. She had helped him. No, they helped each other. It felt right somehow. Like she and Booker belonged together. She wished she could be out there alongside him, but talking to him would have to do for now.

Booker had checked another store while she had been thinking and had returned to the main corridor of the mall.

"Ahem."

She hadn't been paying attention and hadn't realized he was standing in front of a poster. A poster that featured her as "Cohen's New Songbird."

"Songbird?" he asked.

*NOT my idea, believe me! I needed money and I also needed to find out where Sally had gone. Cohen filled both requirements and I didn't have any skills other than singing.*

Booker made a "humf" sound.

*Well, no skills that I could prove that I had. I spend two months as one of his so called "disciples." It wasn't easy. Some of things he would do to people.*

As she talked Booker searched the remaining stores finding only a woman's watch, 18 dollars and 20 rounds of ammo. She identified the ammo being used in the local machine guns for him. He gave a short laugh and said it must be a Constant. It was the same type of round Columbia had used for the Triple R.

There was nothing left to search so they headed to the doors that led to the Atrium and carefully passed through them. This Artium was similar to the one in the 1st Fontaine Store she had been in with Comstock, but a little wider and not was expensively decorated. She had hoped for Pneumo Tubes, but didn't see any.

Booker walked over to the banister and looked down. They were on the 2nd floor and it looked like the main floor stretched over to their right and around the building out of sight. She could see advertisements, displays, several store fronts and a deli. There looked to have been some heavy fighting here and one of the stores had been destroyed by fire. There were figures moving down there as well.

On their current floor there was a bakery and a stairway led to the main floor below and those above. Beyond the stairs was a pharmacy with some Rest Rooms further on. To the right was a bank of disabled elevators and "Fontaine's Sporting Goods".

A quick glance showed that the Atrium went up at least three more stories.

"Looks like we won't need the Shock Jockey after all."

*Even if we don't need it for the door, you're going to need it to survive.* *Do you have a plan to get out of here, I mean this prison we're in? And getting Anna back home?*

Booker stood still for a moment. "Uh, no. Sure we'll come up with something along the way."

*Something never change, do they?*

Chapter 5 End


	6. Chapter 6

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 6

–Elizabeth–

Booker was a little put out about for a moment her pointing out his lacks of plans, but quickly turned the tables on her. "And what plan do you have Elizabeth?"

*I'm, uh, working on it.*

"Riight."

*I do know where the Lutece Device is. It's in the "Silver Fin Restaurant" in another part of Fontaine's. That part of the store should be up by Rapture.*

"So we have to…" Booker suddenly stopped speaking and crouched down. There were people in the bakery, one of them laughing loudly.

She couldn't tell how many there where, but Booker clearly didn't want to confront them and slipped back the doors to the corridor they had just exited and took cover in an alcove.

Five splicers ambled into view heading for the sports store. All wore a baseball jerseys with an "North Atlantic Sluggers" logo on them and some kind of protective gear like a football helmet or ice hockey padding. All but one carried a baseball bat and the last one had a bow and a quiver of arrows. They were talking about something, but she couldn't tell what. She did hear the term Ice Queen mentioned once. The "Sluggers" walked past the elevators and into the sports store.

Booker waited until they had entered the store before moving from cover and as he walked towards the bakery, he kept a wary eye on where the Slugger's had gone.

"I remember seeing a lot of glass walkways last time I was here. I take it we just can't walk out's here."

*No. We'll need to take a Bathysphere.*

"And those would be down on the bottom floor with Ryan's people, right?"

*Yes. I'm not sure why they have people stationed here. Before they just had Fontaine's sealed off.*

"Might be afraid that "Atlas" might try to break them out to add to his army." Booker theorized as he walking through the door of the bakery.

*What a mess.* Everything in the front of the shop was smashed and broken. And there where baseballs all over.

"They were doing batting practice in here?"

*As I said, most people down here aren't all that sane.* she said as they moved to the rear of the shop where they found a battered body. Apparently the "baseball players" were trying to hit a ball and have the ball hit the corpse. A search turned up 10 dollars, a pack of cigarettes and a small ring. Booker tossed the cigarettes aside.

They left the bakery and walked to "Griffon's Pharmacy" and other that some bullet holes in the glass, it looked surprisingly intact. Booker apparently didn't like that there was so little damage much more than she did. He took quick look into the store and backing out of sight as a motor started up inside.

"Turret* they both said at the same time. "Guess I get to try out this Vigor."

As the turret finished starting up, Booker fired a bright blue flame from his left hand at it and stood still as the turret swung towards him. The turret ignored him and continued its sweep.

Booker let out his breath. "Seems to work." The bypassed turret looked as if it was covered in bright blue flames. When the flames dimmed she knew the Plasmid would be near expiring.

They walked into the store and nearly tripped over three dead bodies. Booker quickly searched them netting only three pistol rounds and 28 dollars. None of them had been armed with anything other than a club.

*They must have been desperate to try charging a turret with only clubs.*

"Or crazy enough to think they could destroy it." Booker said as they moved past the turret and to the back of the store.

Booker started reading off some of the products on sale. "Cocaine, aspirin, morphine, penicillin, Ampheta Time, opium. I've seen what happens to opium addicts, it's not nice."

*Almost anything goes in Rapture. If you get hurt by something you buy, tough luck. You shouldn't have bought it.*

"These people would have loved how things were before Theodore got into the White House."

Behind the counter they found a makeshift bed still occupied by its dead owner. The elderly man had been dead for some time and even in death had a calm expression on his face.

*Looks like he died peacefully. A rare occurrence down here.*

Booker picked up the Health Kit behind the counter and played the Audio Diary sitting next to it.

_Simon Griffon: Betsy_

_December 02, 1958_

_I never knew why I bought that security turret. Five minutes after I got it I wanted to get rid of it. Felt like a fool for buying it. It's saved my life I don't know how many times now by keeping those lunatics out of my store. (sigh) Don't feel well, left arm hurts. Going to rest. Betsy will keep me safe though._

They stood up and Booker looked at the back of the turret. Scrawled on the back was the name "Betsy".

'Too bad Betsy couldn't protect you from a heart attack.'

"Might be a good place to hole up if we need to." Booker said as he retrieved 121 Dollars from the register. Next tried the door to the back area, but found it locked.

*Still don't know how to pick locks yet?*

He walked back the body and started to search it. "Sorry fella" he muttered. "No, haven't learned to pick locks. Been rather busy. Here we go." He retrieved a set of keys and walked back to the door to opened it.

It was obviously the storage area for all the pharmacies' more expensive drugs. The walls were lined with them. And on the far wall, a bottle of Devil's Kiss.

"Finally." Booker walked over and opened the Plasmid bottle to check its contents before downing it. He blinked a few times. "A lot smoother."

*Booker, could you read the second shelf on your right? Yes, that one.*

"Take it you're not doing an inventory." Booker said as he read the labels on the shelf.

*No, I think might be able to come up some kind of gas bomb for Ryan's people downstairs. Yes, everything I'll need is here. Going to have to be binary though.*

"Binary?"

*Yes. The two precursor chemicals will need to be mixed together as it is deployed.*

"And if we try to mix them together ahead of time?"

*We get a big cloud of gas in our faces, well your face.*

"Not a good idea. How much of these chemicals?"

*Four ounces and five ounces of liquid each.*

"One bottle inside another bottle."

*That would work.*

"Maybe not a bottle on the outside. It would break too easy. Porcelain maybe? He picked a small bottle and looked at the label. "Ok to dump this?"

*Yes, it's safe. How are you going to break the container if it's that heavy?*

"Shoot it. Bottles and the like were what I used for target practice when I was young."

*It's a bit hard for me to think of you as being young.* She said jokingly.

Booker didn't say anything, but continued to look around. 'I think I hit a nerve. If he wants to tell me anything, he will.'

"Nothing here. Didn't see anything the right size earlier. If there isn't anything out front, we'll have to go down to the main floor and hope we can find something."

They walked to the front of the store and looked it over, but there were no containers the right size or ones they could fit the smaller bottle into. The Plasmid on Betsy had worn off so they had to say out its line of fire while they searched.

"Nothing." Booker said as he hit the Betsy with the Bypass Plasmid again.

*Guess we will have to look around more.*

They had just gone through the doorway when an arrow whipped past Booker's head. He backed up quickly as four of the splicers they had seen earlier erupted from either side of the doorway.

"Get 'em!" "Turrets down, it's ours now!" "You're going to die!" "I get his boots!"

Booker backed over to his left allowing Betsy a clear line fire. The first two splicers were taken down by Betsy and Booker put two rounds into the third before he fell. He quickly reloaded and charged out the door only to dodge a hard swung baseball bat. He wasn't so lucky with the arrow, but it didn't penetrate the Shield.

She hated this. If she was with him she could help. Maybe even make it so that Booker wasn't forced to kill them all.

Booker ignored the baseball wielding splicer for a moment and fired three times at the one with the bow and he went down. Deciding not use any more pistol ammo, Booker brought out the Skyhook and the splicers life was soon ended by a broken neck.

As Booker reloaded again, the light seemed to dim a little.

"Now we have to do something with the bodies." Booker said sourly.

Something wasn't right. Getting dark. Head foggy.

*Booker, something's...wrong, dark, hard... to...*

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth!" Booker's voice was distant, faint.

Everything in Elizabeth's world faded away.

–Booker–

No! She couldn't be gone!

Quite! Listen.

There.

Elizabeth was still there. He could just hear her. Like a soft mummer in the background, far away. He sighed with relief. There was nothing he could do to figure out what had happened to her or get her back.

Nothing left for him to do but start cleaning up.

Not much he could do about the blood, but leaving bodies around would attract the wrong kind of attention, even in a place like this. He was able to recover 78 dollars, a watch and a Teddy Bear. He stored the bow and arrow in the pharmacy. He hoped he wouldn't need them, but better safe than sorry. He put the bodies of the five dead splicers in the ruined bakery where, with a little luck, they wouldn't attract attention.

He really didn't want to go to the lower floor without Elizabeth with him, so he decided to check out the sports store.

The North Atlantic Sluggers had been lousy housekeepers. A knee high pile of broken beer bottles in one corner, pieces or sports uniforms thrown all over and it didn't smell like they took baths very often. Anything that would have been useful as protection or a weapon was long gone. All the footballs, baseballs and other sports gear on the floor made it difficult to walk. He found a battered Audio Diary sticking out of a pile of trash, but decided against playing it until Elizabeth returned. A bottle of "Hop Up Cola" replaced the Salt he had used.

He went to the back area and found what the splicers used for beds. The stock room had been cleared out of everything other than destroyed crates and boxes. The office had papers tossed all over the place and the safe had been emptied. He looked around, but something didn't feel right. He figured those splicers would have had more than what he had found on them. So, where would they have hidden something? He walked back to the office and looked around again.

People hid stuff where they thought it would be safe. The Safe. He looked at the floor around the safe and saw heavy drag marks. He looked at the safe again. It was big and heavy.

"Hope moving this thing is going to be worth it."

A minute later he had moved the safe aside to reveal a hole knocked in the wall behind it. Inside was a bag of coins, an expensive bracelet and a baseball with a signature on it. 'Who's Babe Ruth?' He put the ball back and left the store. As he was passing the elevators, he heard Elizabeth again.

*uhn...booker? Booker!*

"Elizabeth, I'm here. Are you alright?"

*Sorry. For moment I, thought it was all a dream. I think I'm ok. What happened?*

"I don't know. You were gone for about a half hour. Well, not really gone, I could still hear you a little, like you were far away. Do you remember anything?"

*No, things just got dark and it was hard to think. Everything just faded away. Then, I'm back. It doesn't make any sense.*

"We'll figure it out."

*I hope so. It would be a problem if I had to tell you something important and I faded away again.* The irritation in her voice was quite evident.

*Well, anything happen out there while I was gone?*

"Found some more money and an Audio Diary."

_Walter Anderson: Worry_

_November 20, 1958_

_I can't stop think'n about it. Fontaine always had an angle. Always had a plan. What if he had a plan for this? Pretending to die. What would he do to the people that tried to sell him out when he came back?_

_No, no. He's dead. Just need to get more sleep. Be better after I sleep._

*I hope you and Anna are long gone from here before any more of Fontaine's plan is set in motion .*

"Not going to argue with that. Is there going to be enough to make two of those gas bombs of yours?"

*Should be. You think we'll need another one for when we get to Rapture.*

"The docks for those bathyspheres will probably be guarded." he said as he started walking down the stairs to the lower level.

*Booker, aren't we a little exposed?*

"Trying something a bit different. If I act like I belong, no one should bother us too much."

*That works?* Elizabeth asked in an unbelieving tone.

"Yep. When we were in Columbia, how often did we just walk around and no one said anything?"

*I guess that's true. At least until Comstock sent his people after us.*

"Well, I don't think anyone is nearly as interested in us this time around. At least not yet." he said as he reached the bottom of the staircase. There were dozens of shops and stores that sold everything from books to shoes to radio parts. Some of the storefronts where sealed with metal gates over their doors, but at least half were open.

A set of doors at one end of the Atrium were blocked by a variety heavy objects including tables, desks, random equipment and what looked to be a ships propeller. Unless his sense of direction was off, behind those doors was the cookware department where they had been earlier.

There were probably nearly two dozen people around. Some were walking, others talking with someone. Seemed like no one was looking for trouble. He hoped it stayed that way.

They walked in the direction of the nearest store, one that sold children's toys. Someone had gone through the place already knocking things off the shelves and smashing some of the toys on the floor.

*Booker, could you look at those dolls a moment?*

*That's the same doll that Sally has. Head fell off, but she never lets it go.* she said, a sad tone in her voice.

He really couldn't think of anything to say and left the store. As he did a splicer with a blue piece of cloth tied over the right side of his face called out. He had a club, but it hung from a piece of rope on his belt.

"Hey, hey fella. How ya doing?"

They turned to face the man. "Doing well enough. Anything I can do for you, friend?"

"Oh, nuthin. Just don't 'member seein ya before."

"Try to keep to myself."

The splicer's right hand twitched as if going for his club, but his left hand reached over grabbed it. "No, I TOLD you, don't do that. It's not right."

The splicer walked away, talking to his hand and telling it to behave.

They moved to the next store that sold shoes. "Wing Tips?"

*Dress shoes. I think you would look quite stylish in a pair of white and black ones.*

"Humf, Right."

*Booker, should you be talking to me so, well, openly?*

"Don't think it'll be a problem. Seems to be normal down here."

The shoe store had nothing to offer and they headed to the next one was "Wiserman's Exotic Foods." and it had been totally emptied out. This made him start to wonder about a few things. "Where does the food come from for this place?"

*Ryan keeps this place going. Probably only for public relations reasons though. He calls it "exile" rather than prison. He keeps the power going and the supplies it with oxygen. I wonder how much longer that will last with the war on though.*

"Hey fella!" a masked female splicer in a very low cut blue dress called out. "Looking for a good time?" The woman walked over to Booker and tried to put her arms around him. "Ohh, handsome one aren'tcha? I might give You a discount." she purred.

He deftly avoid the splicers embrace. She might have been attractive at one time, but even with the mask on he could tell that splicing had taken a heavy toll on her.

"Sorry, not today." He said politely, but with some force behind it. The splicer took the hint and walked away in as a seductive fashion.

"Well, when you're looking for something big boy, you know where to find me." she called over her shoulder.

*Hussy!* Elizabeth hissed.

He was a bit surprised at the venom in her voice. "She was probably going to try and pick my pockets."

*Really? Even back in Columbia half the women had their eyes on you. Or didn't you notice.*

"Really didn't care. This days, got one little lady that takes up my time." he said as he entered a small book store named "Deep Sea Literature". The shelves were mostly empty, but there were still a few books. One or two had been knocked to the floor.

*Guess someone down here took up reading. I know how it feels.*

They walked to the back counter of the store, but didn't see anyone. A rack on the counter advertised "Latest Paper!"

"They get a newspaper down here?"

*Probably gets sent by the Pneumo Tubes. Even in prison money can buy certain things."

Booker looked into the small office in back. It had a desk and a single swivel chair whose occupant faced away from them.

"Sorry, didn't know…" He stopped speaking as he realized the occupant of the chair was dead. He used his foot to turn the chair around to see that the man had been strangled, the wire still looped around his neck. "This didn't happen long ago, only a couple of hours."

They had just started looking for anything useful when a voice called out from the front of the store.

"Hey, Thad! The paper in yet?"

Booker steeped out of the office to get a clear view of the two men that had walked into the store. Larger than average and both had pistols. 'Muscle for someone.'

"Sorry, but your friend is in no condition." Booker motioned with his hand and stood back out of the way.

The first muscle went to check the body while the other glanced in and turned to Booker "You do this?"

"No I didn't. I just found him. Been dead a couple hours."

"I don't believe you. You did…" "Sam!" the other man called. "He's right. Thad was done awhile ago. Better get up top and tell the boss."

"I think.." Sam began.

"No, you don't think, you're no good at it." The other interrupted. "Now get up top. I'll stay here." Sam hesitated. "I said, Get Going. Understand?"

Sam gave him a dirty look and left.

*I wonder if these two put on a comedy act on Friday nights.*

The smart muscle waited a few moments for Sam to leave and looked Booker over with a wary eye. "You're new. Who you work for?"

"I'm an independent contractor. Look'n for a five year old girl, dark hair, blue eyes. Her name is Anna."

"You got some reeal bad info, buddy. No kids down here. Other than the Sisters and those little freaks aren't human."

"She might have been turned into one."

"Then she's as good as dead. Listen you better get outa here. And make sure Sam don't see you." The man pointed to the door.

He carefully exited the store.

*I don't think that man was a splicer and he has a boss.*

"That "boss" could be anyone. Some people hook their wagons to anyone they think is more powerful than they are. Don't think he's one of those though. Seemed comfortable giving orders."

*This place is a lot more, well, sane than the other parts of Fontaine's were.*

"This is sane?"

*Compared to the other two stores, yes. The splicers there would attack anyone they didn't recognize on sight. Maybe there weren't as many Plasmids here to overdose on.*

They had just walked past a shuttered store that proclaimed itself as an official outlet for McClendon Robotics products and where outside "Rafael's Quality Suits" when Booker felt a vibration in the floor. A moment later, another one.

Footsteps.

Booker stopped walking and moved to the wall next to a large set of double doors. He noticed other people looking around. They clearly had felt the vibrations as well.

*What's wrong?*

"Footsteps, big ones. Feels a bit like a Handy Man. Must be one of those Big Daddies is around."

*Just don't get to close to him or to the Little Sister and he shouldn't bother you.*

"What exactly does a Big Daddy look like?"

*Like a man in a diving suit, except a lot bigger. Some of them have a big drill on their right arm and the others carry a gun of some sort.*

The doors besides him opened up and he turned to find a massive drill just inches from his face.

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 7

-Booker-

Surprised by the drill, he jumped back with a curse and Elizabeth made a sharp startled sound.

*Just get away from him! Don't do anything threatening!*

He backed off and put a heavy planter between himself and the Big Daddy. The Big Daddy ignored him and started walking down towards the far end of the promenade.

He studied the Big Daddy closely as it moved away.

*You're lucky a Little Sister wasn't with him. He would have attacked.*

"Doesn't seem to be very fast."

*When they want to, they can charge very quickly. And the drill… Can you get a good look at the drill arm?*

He changed position to get a better view of the Big Daddies right arm.

*The drill is different. I think this is a newer version. They may have given it some abilities I don't know about. Booker, please be careful around them. I don't want you to end up like I did.*

"I'll be careful, I promise."

The Big Daddy walked up to some kind of vent on the wall further down the corridor and pounded against it with his left hand.

*A heating vent. The Little Sisters hide in them and use them to move around to different parts of the building safely. The Big Daddy must be trying to attract a Little Sister.*

As Elizabeth predicted a young girl appeared at the vent and the Big Daddy helped her to the floor. Booker moved closer to get a better look. What he saw horrified him inside. She wore a torn red and white dress, her skin was unnaturally pale and looked paper thin. But the worst was her eyes. They glowed an unnatural yellow color.

The Little Sister dropped to the floor and started to walk about in her bare feet. "Come on Mister Bubbles! Angels don't wait for slowpokes." Her voice was weirdly distorted. He was relieved that it wasn't Anna, but the fear that she could have been turned into something like that felt as if it were crushing his heart.

*They're not suffering, physically at least. They heal from almost any injury in moments, so long as the slug is inside them. And the Big Daddy makes sure that no one can capture them to remove the slug for its ADAM.*

The Little Sister was rapidly looking around with a smile on her face. Like what she was seeing was different from what he saw. She had started to repeat the phrase "Three too many." Over and over again. The strange tool she had in her hand bothered him.

*Part of the conditioning alters their perceptions. They don't recognize people they knew or see the world as it. I hope they don't remember anything.*

Several of the splicers in the area looked at the Little Sister with hunger in their eyes, but made no move towards her.

"What's that in her right hand?"

*A syringe of some sort. Sally didn't have one, but those I saw in Rapture did.* *You don't think…?*

He felt sick. "Yeah, I do. One of those things made the holes in the bodies we found earlier."

The Little Sister had found something she liked and started dancing about. "This angel's filled with ADAM!"

The Big Daddy went into a defensive stance and spun up his drill. Booker moved to get a better view of what was happening as the Little Sister got on her knees and started repeatedly stabbing the woman's corpse in front of her.

*God...*

"I'm a good girl, Mr. B!" She proudly proclaimed as she stabbed the corpse again.

He backed up a little as the Big Daddy seemed be paying too much attention to them for his peace of mind. 'What's she going to do with the blood?'

Moments later he wished he had never thought of the question when the girl lifted up the syringe to her lips and started to drink the blood from it.

He turned and walked away before the urge to get sick overtook him.

*I..I didn't..…how, how could they do that?*

He thought he had seen the worst of human nature. The Bowery, Columbia, what he had done at Wounded Knee. But this? This was sick in a way he had never imagined. Even Comstock would have found it revolting. He had to sit down a moment and tried not to think about Anna doing the same thing.

-Elizabeth—

'Oh God, Sally. She's out there right now doing the same thing. All the Little Sisters are. Anna might be. I didn't know. I Didn't Know!'

"Elizabeth, are you ok?"

*Booker, I didn't know. I swear I didn't know.*

"I think you might have."

*What?* she asked in a small shocked voice.

"You just don't remember. You died to put a stop to That." Booker's hand made a vague gesture towards the Little Sister. "Probably worse that we haven't seen yet."

*I can't imagine how it could get worse.*

"Better get going." Booker said. As they started to stand up a splicer rushed over to them with an angry expression on his face.

"You! That's my spot! I'm gonna…." The splicer's voice trailed off as Booker finished standing up and the splicer realized that Booker towered over him by more than a few inches.

"Sorry, didn't realize this spot was taken." Booker was just looking the splicer right in the eye. "I'll just leave then." he said pleasantly.

The splicer took a step back. "Yeah, yeah, you do that."

The Little Sister and Big Daddy had moved down the corridor and they walked back towards Rafael's Quality Suits, but a quick look inside showed that there would be nothing of use in it.

"Gotta be a faster way to do this." Booker muttered.

*There should be a map or directory around here someplace. Look along the center of the corridor.*

Booker looked for a few moments and his eyes fixed on a large sign further down. "That must be it."

They looked over the map for a few moments before Booker found something. "The Spice Rack."

*The Spice Rack? I don't understand. What do spices have to do with finding the containers?*

"You never learned to cook, did you?"

*No, Songbird always brought me food.*

"Many spices need to be kept in sealed containers to keep them dry and so they don't lose their flavor."

*And you cook.* she asked skeptically.

"Yeah, not a great cook, but Anna never complained."

The thought of Booker in a frilly white apron just didn't seem to fit her mental image of him. Anna. What was she like? How different was she from her? What was the same?

*Booker, what is Anna like?*

The question clearly caught Booker off guard and he didn't say anything for some moments.

"In some ways she is a lot like you when you first got out of the tower. She's happy, wants to look at everything, asks questions all the time, even when she shouldn't."

*Are you saying I was nosy?*

"A little." Booker said in an apologetic voice as they walked into the remains of The Spice Rack. The place was a mess. Most of the spice containers were knocked over and their contents spread all over. A glass counter was smashed and one of the display cases tipped on its side.

*Humph. Go on.*

"She reads well, when she wants too. She would rather be out running around and getting into things. Wears boy's clothes most of the time, more than a bit of a tomboy I guess(1). She's trying to learn to play the guitar, but it's not going well. She's nice, want's to help people, but doesn't let anyone push her around. The Jackson boy from down the street tried something and you gave him a bloody nose. If Mary didn't love her so much Anna probably would have driven her mad."

Booker shook his head slightly and picked up a spice container and fitted a small bottle into it. "This will work. Might need something to seal the top up with a little better."

*I remember seeing some glue up in the pharmacy. Who's Mary?*

"Anna's Nanny. The agency can take a lot of time and there are odd hours. I couldn't leave Anna alone."

*So you hired some middle aged lady with no children of her own?*

"Mary's 20 years old and quite smart. Anna needs someone that can keep up with her. Hum, another Audio Diary."

_Edith Butler: Just a Secretary_

_December 02, 1958_

_I was just one of the secretaries here. I would see Mr. Fontaine maybe once a week. I would occasionally take dictation from him. I didn't know he was into anything illegal. The other people blame me for being down here. I've been attacked twice. They hurt me. I think some of my fingers are broken. It's not my fault, why can't they see that? _

"Fontaine leaves a lot of hurt people behind him."

*The ones that are still alive.*

Booker had picked up another spice container and tested it. "This should do it. Anything else you want to look at?"

*Nothing I can think of.*

They walked out the shattered spice shop and headed back to stairway back to the upper level. As they passed "Joe's Pizza" which still seemed to be serving food, they noticed three men walking towards them. In the lead was the smarter of the two men they had met in the bookstore. Sam was nowhere to be seen.

*Trouble?*

"Don't think so. They want something though." Booker said softly as he stopped to let the men approach.

She made a mental note to try to work out a way for Booker to communicate with her without making it obvious he was talking. The men walking towards them were watching everything around them but didn't seem to be nervous, just careful. None of them seemed to be spliced which struck her as odd.

The man they had talked to earlier called out. "Hey buddy, like to talk to for a minute."

She noticed that all three men where keeping their hands away from their pistols. They were going out of their way to avoid provoking anything.

"Sorry, but don't know anything more about what happened to your friend than I already told you."

"This isn't about that, Mister...?"

"It's DeWitt, Booker DeWitt."

"Well Mr. DeWitt, my boss would like to meet you. Please."

*Booker, I think we should go. Someone seems to be running things here and this man's boss seems to be it. Should be able to gain some information at least.*

"No time like the present." Booker said. They walked to the stairway with the man they had been talking too beside them and the other two in front.

As they climbed to the third floor Elizabeth saw that this wasn't a retail area, but offices. Three hostile looking men came out to watch them as they ascended to the next floor.

Their guide explained. "Atlas's people. The stairs are neutral territory. We have the fourth floor, they have the third and everything else it up for grabs."

"Don't seem to like you much."

"Nope. They think anyone that isn't with Atlas is with Ryan. We just want to get out of this damn fishbowl and back up top in one piece."

*I wonder how many other people just want to get out of Rapture?*

They reached the third floor and found a guard armed with a shotgun waiting for them and the corridor blocked off by a makeshift barrier. As they approached a door in the barricade was opened from the inside to let them pass. The two escorts went their own way while their guide led them off to the right past a row of empty offices and to floor to ceiling barrier made of wood and backed by metal.

Their guide opened a door in the barrier and led them to the room at the end of the corridor. Booker hesitated a moment and she noticed that she could see his breath.

*Booker, I think there is a Frosty splicer in here. They can freeze things, including people. Be careful, they're hard to kill.*

They walked into a moderately sized meeting room with a single large table and eleven chairs around it. On the table where papers and maps. A schematic of the building was tacked up on a black board behind the table. She noticed there was ice all around the room, particularly on the chair at the opposite end of the table. Their guide walked over to one of the doors on the opposite end of the room and politely knocked on it. "Clarice, he came. His name is Booker DeWitt."

A female voice with an English accent responded "Thank you Martin, I will be out in a moment. Can you see if he wants anything to eat or drink?"

Booker shook his head indicating "no" when Martin turned to them.

Less than a minute later the owner of the female voice came through the doors. She was a Frosty, but very unlike the others Elizabeth had seen or heard of. Frosties always had large ice crystals growing out of them and were known for the "beards" made out of ice on their faces. This woman only had a few crystals on her other than those that replaced her hair and had no hint of a beard. While her skin was blue, it was smooth and unblemished. And a lot of that skin could be seen as she was dressed in glittering silver evening gown. Elizabeth guessed that the woman was in her late 30's and despite what the Old Man Winter plasmid had done to her, she was still more than a little attractive.

"Hello, Mr. DeWiit, I am Clarice Baxter, I apologize for not offering to shake your hand, but I doubt you would appreciate getting frostbite." She smiled in a friendly manner, but Elizabeth saw sadness in it. "Would you care for a seat?"

"No thank you, I'll stand."

"Martin, could you get a coat for our guest and one for yourself, please."

The door behind them opened and closed as Martin went about his short errand. The woman's glowing eyes focused on the door a moment and Elizabeth could swear she signed slightly before turning her attention back to Booker.

"No doubt you are wondering why I wanted to talk to you. Do you have a way to leave this place?"

"Sorry, one way trip only."

The woman looked down in disappointment for a moment. "Well, too much to hope for I suppose." Martin came back wearing a handmade coat and passed a similar one to Booker who examined it a moment before putting it on.

"I suppose I should explain our situation. There are 33 people here that want to go home. And unless they get out of this prison soon, Ryan will kill them. We are lucky he has not done so already."

"These people did nothing wrong Mr. DeWitt. They either just happened to work for Fontaine, disagreed with Ryan's policies or wanted to go back to their homes on the surface."

"So you want me to help you and your people escape."

"My people, yes. Myself, no."

Martin spoke up "Clarice, you need to come with us."

"No, Martin. I am stable for now, but it will not last." The woman turned back to Booker. "I am the only splicer here Mr. DeWitt. I was able to keep the others from splicing and sharing my fate."

*The second barrier we passed. She seals herself off from the rest of her people to protect them.*

"What makes you think Ryan is going to kill you?" Booker asked.

"Those fools below us. They are planning to break out and join Atlas's rebellion. When they fail or even if they succeed, Ryan will use it as an excuse to turn off the oxygen. You see Mr. DeWitt, I used to know Ryan, once considered him a friend. And like a fool I allowed myself to be talked into coming down here. That was when I was still "Lady Baxter". Even if Atlas's people don't do something stupid, Ryan will find a reason to kill us when he remembers we are here. It is only a matter of time."

"And you think I can get your people out of here."

"I believe you are my people's best chance. When I first heard of you I thought you might be able to help with some of our smaller problems. Those "baseball players" for instance. Yes, I am aware that problem no longer exists."

"What changed?"

"I have met you. You are not some gun for hire or cheap detective that makes a living taking pictures of other people's infidelities. You are something more." *The lady has good instincts.* "Can you help us? Will you help us? We cannot give you much, but what we have we will give to you."

*Booker, we have to help.*

"I'm going to have to think about it."

The woman looked dejected for a moment. "I understand. Martin, will you show our guest out please?"

*Booker! What are you doing! We just can't walk away!*

The two men left the room and headed back to stairs leading down. Booker handed Martin back the coat and turned to go down the stairs.

"I'll be back to tell you my answer within a day." he told Martin before he started down.

What was Booker doing? Just walking away and saying he would think about it? What's to think about?

*Booker. Booker!*

"Later, when it's safe." he growled in a low voice.

Elizabeth fumed as Booker descended the stairs towards the second floor and the pharmacy. As they passed the third floor, the three people that followed Atlas were joined by two more. The tallest of them called out to them.

"Hey, hey you! I wanna talk to yah."

*Booker, you better not.*

"Sorry, got some things to do. Maybe later."

"I'm not asking." said as he strode over to Booker. He looked as if he had intended to try and use his height to intimidate Booker, but found Booker was taller than he was and was not at all intimidated.

"I said, Maybe Later."

"No later, now." the man said as he reached out to grab Booker's arm. He froze an instant later Booker's Skyhook appeared just under his nose making its distinctive whirling sound.

"You seem to have a problem understanding. Clear now?" Booker said in a dangerous tone of voice.

Sweat beaded his face as he stared at the Skyhook. "Yeah, yeah. I understand."

"Good, now move along."

As the tall man backed off, his friends started laughing.

Booker kept an eye on his back as he headed down the stairs and walked towards the pharmacy, but hesitated a moment.

*Mister DeWitt. Talk, Now.*

"I would like to help Clarice and her people, but knowing if we can help would be good idea. Also, Atlas's people are going to be a problem. After the Vox I would have thought you would be little more careful."

*YOU were the one who made the deal with the Vox!*

"And You were quite happy to go along with it if I recall. And remember how well it all worked out." he said acidly.

The anger drained out of her in an instant. *Yeah, I ended up killing Daisy to protect a child she was never going to harm.*

Booker changed direction and headed to the sports store as he spoke.

"Elizabeth, Fitzroy gave you no choice, she was going to kill Fink's son. She said so."

*No, Booker, she wasn't. It was a set up. She was only pretending that she was going to kill him.*

"Why would she do that?" Booker was right to be confused.

*The Luteces. They arranged it. All as an exercise to make me a killer.* She couldn't keep the bitterness from her voice. "And it worked perfectly."

"Elizabeth, please, tell me." His voice was soft.

Booker had entered the sports store and went into the back as she recounted the "deal" she made with Atlas and her trip to Columbia. Her overhearing the Luteces conversation with Daisy, the hair sample, Songbird imprinting on her, seeing herself and Booker in the elevator, Fink's laboratories.

As she spoke, Booker collected some of the makeshift bedding, some rope, some odds and ends, then headed back to the pharmacy. She hadn't been playing attention to what he was doing and only took notice when she had finished that Betsy had been covered up by a blanket.

*Booker what have you been doing?*

"Saving Salt and maybe setting a trap for Atlas's people. I'll explain later. How could you go to Columbia? It shouldn't exist anymore."

*It's hard to explain. To us Columbia is gone, never existed. It's our past. But for Rapture, it hasn't happened yet and won't for months. Once the syphon is destroyed and we come here to drown Songbird, it will vanish like it never was.*

"Can't we go help them? The younger uh, us."

*We can't help them because we didn't. We've caused enough trouble already, don't you think?*

"Humf. I guess we have." Booker had thought of something. She couldn't see his face, but she could still tell things about him.

"Elizabeth, do you know how many other Booker's the Luteces sent to Columbia?"

*I, uh never thought about it.* 'I didn't want to think about you dying.'

"I was the 123rd that made it to the city alive. Some didn't even get that far. The Luteces were using us. I can't count how many Bookers died in Columbia. When one of me died, they would just go get another. They tricked you into killing Fitzroy how many times?"

*I don't want to try counting.*

"They used us for their own purposes and as part of their experiments. They never cared about us. The only reason I got any help from them to come to Rapture was because I surprised them by being alive and that made the experiment more interesting for them."

For some reason Elizabeth was certain she had heard this before. But she knew she hadn't.

*I wonder what their real purpose was? To stop Comstock or study Constants and Variables.*

"Maybe both of them. Doubt we'll ever know."

*So what's with the blanket on Betsy?*

"To keep it from firing when we don't want to. I figure Atlas's people are going to come down here sooner or later and when they do, I want them to think this isn't working. Also when we leave, I don't have to hit it with the vigor. I just pull off the blanket with the rope from outside."

*You think they will come after us?*

"Sure of it. The fool I scared off was sent to test me. I'm now a threat and they'll either try to get me to join them or try and kill me."

*You intentionally irritated them so they would try and attack you.*

"Angry people make mistakes, which means I may not have to kill so many. And it draws attention from Clarice's people. I don't think the book seller's murder was random. Takes practice to kill like that. It was planned, controlled."

*You think Atlas's people are escalating things against Clarice and her people?*

"The newspaper is the only source of information from the outside, right? Cutting off sources information is how you weaken an enemy with little risk."

*Fontaine had radios in the other building. He used them to communicate with Atlas's supporters in Rapture. These people probably have at least one as well. They'll be able to spread propaganda for Atlas and make it easier to turn people to him.*

"Hopefully that means they won't try to break out of here anytime soon. Now we just have to figure out how to get over 30 people out of this place without getting everyone killed."

End Chapter 7

(1) Very much inspired by a cartoon by Alligator-Jesie on deviantART.


	8. Chapter 8

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 8

–Elizabeth-

*How are we supposed to get over 30 people out of here and up to Rapture?*

She had been thinking so much about helping Claris and her people she hadn't really thought about How they would do it. Why hadn't she thought of that? And why did she get so mad at Booker?

"Yeah, that's the real problem. Should be able to take out Ryan's people, but moving everyone?"

*Normal bathyspheres only can hold six or seven people at a time. Some of them fewer.*

"Making a lot of trips back and forth from here to Rapture doesn't sound like a good idea."

*And we don't even know if Ryan's people have a sphere here to take.*

"So we need to find out what the guards have. Also their numbers and what kind of equipment they have."

*There are larger submarines in Rapture, but they can dock in only in a few locations. If we did manage to steal one, we could never dock it down here.*

"So we need a large number of smaller craft that can dock anywhere. Go up to Rapture and steal them?"

*Bathyspheres DeLuxe!* Should have thought of that before. Must be getting tired.

"What?"

*Bathyspheres DeLuxe, it's a showroom for bathyspheres in the other part of Fontaine's up by Rapture. Between that and the repair bays, there should be easily a dozen spheres, more than enough to transport everyone at once.*

"Isn't that where the Tear Machine is?"

*Yes. Ryan killed all the prisoners earlier, so there should be just guards there now. But I don't imagine that there will to many of them. It's also probably the best place to start to search for Anna.*

"How so?"

*It's where they brought Anna to Rapture. They may still have her nearby.*

"Somehow, don't think we'll get that lucky."

*At least we have some kind of plan now.*

"Should we make those gas bombs of yours now?"

*No, I, better if it was done right before we use them.* Was it starting to get dark again?

*Booker, is there something wrong with the lights?*

He looked around. "No, nothing's changed."

*Damn. I must be fading again.*

"Is there anything I can do?"

*Don't think anything can…do….*

Darker now. Not fast as before. Music, would like to hear Booker…play….

-Booker—

"Elizabeth?" Hell.

He could still hear her, just like last time so she wasn't gone. 'Might was make this place a little more livable.'

He spent an hour straightening things up and moved the owner's remains off to the side where they would be out of the way. After 45 minutes he decided that Elizabeth would not be back soon and realized how tired he was. The turret was uncovered and he did his best to fashion a bedroll.

'Not the most comfortable thing I've ever slept on. But slept in worse places.'

Booker lay down and was quickly asleep.

…

Booker woke and blinked the sleep from his eyes.

*Good morning, Mr. DeWitt.* Elizabeth greeted him cheerily.

Thank goodness. "Mornin' Elizabeth. How long have you been back?"

*I think about half an hour. It's hard to tell how much time has passed. And I'm very happy you don't snore.* Her tone darkened. *How long was I gone this time?*

He got out his pocket watch to look out the time. "You "left" about 9, it's 5:30 now, about eight hours then."

*That long? What if I didn't come back next time?*

"I don't think you're gone, you're just not... awake."

*You think I'm sleeping?* Her voice made it clear that she didn't believe it for an moment.

"Well, you were "gone" for about eight hours and the first time was just right for an afternoon nap."

*Pft. So what are we going to do today?*

Why doesn't she want to believe she could still be alive?

"Have to figure out how to tell Claris that I will try to help, but that I use Vigors, find where that Green Room place is and work at reducing the number of Atlas's people."

*Sounds like full day. Why are you worried about telling Claris you use Plasmids?*

"She doesn't like splicers. Remember when she said that she was the only splicer up there?"

*I see what you're saying. She doesn't trust splicers because she thinks they will all go crazy or change like she did.*

"So you want to go to "Joe's Pizza" for breakfast?"

*Pizza for breakfast?*

"I've had a lot worse, but doubt they actually have any pizza. Probably be lucky just to get some fancied up rations."

*What time is it? I mean Rapture time. It could be the middle of the night here.*

That brought him up short for a moment. He was still working on New York City time. But what time did Rapture work on? Getting the time wrong could cause problems.

"Have no idea. Guess we should find a working clock."

*Hopefully there is one down on the main floor.*

After carefully checking the area for an ambush and leaving the turret on guard, they went to Joe's only to find it closed. A sign said it would open a 7:00 am.

"Guess it's one of those Circus machines then." Booker lamented and started looking around.

*When do you expect Atlas's people to try something?*

"Either while I'm down here, or when I go back to the pharmacy. Probably down here though."

*So they can publicly show how powerful they are. Humph.*

"Makes 'em easier…" *to predict and manipulate.* she finished.

"One way to put it."

He saw the Circus of Values machine further down the promenade and started walking towards it. "Actually, I rather hope they try it down here. More cover and there are some statues up there I can use."

*Do you look every room as if you are going to be fighting in it?*

"Well, yeah. More as a habit than anything, but seems a necessity down here."

He went up to the vending machine and purchased some rations and milk. He then found a bench where he would have his back to a wall and could watch the staircase.

"Elizabeth, that "El Ammo Bandito" next to the Circus machine, it sells ammunition?"

*Sells ammo and you can sometimes upgrade weapons at them. If you have enough money of course.*

"And the Gene Bank is Rapture's version of the Vigor machines in Columbia. Or is it the other way around?"

*Fink and Suchong stole so much from each other it's hard to tell who invented what.*

He made a face when he first tasted the rations. Had worse before, but not by much.

*Don't taste that good, do they?*

"Might have warned me."

*Sorry. Since I don't get hungry, I guess I don't think about food much.*

A short time later they saw that there was activity on the third floor.

*And here come Atlas's people. I feel sorry for some of them actually. They're just fighting against Ryan and the horrible things he is doing. Fontaine is playing them for fools and they don't have any idea.*

He had enough time to finish eating before Atlas's people got near and he studied them as they approached. Two of them where splicers, but it was one of the unspliced ones he paid the most attention to. He was armed with a shotgun and walked like a man who enjoyed hurting people, clearly the leader. Two of the others carried pistols, but only the splicer them looked comfortable with it. The other one armed with a pistol was the same one who had confronted them yesterday and he looked like he had a score to settle. The last three had clubs and didn't look like they had much combat experience. Cannon fodder. With luck he wouldn't have to kill them.

*The one with the shotgun. He looks like one who would work for Fontaine. A low class thug.*

"Makes me an upper class thug then?"

*All right, I take it back, you are Not a thug Booker, but you do dress like one.*

He chucked a little and walked a short way towards the position he had chosen earlier and waited. The few people in the area made haste to get to safer locations.

Atlas's people stopped about ten feet away, right where he hoped they would. The leader was in the middle, the two equipped with pistols a short distance on either side. Those with clubs were out on the flanks, even if one had to be shoved and told where to stand. This made it difficult for him to try an escape back to the stairs if he tried. Not that he had intention of trying.

The leader called out. "Mr. Marks would like to have a word with you."

"Who's Mr. Marks?" He asked politely.

Several of the men snickered. "Mr. Marks runs things down here for Atlas. Everyone knows that. Now you going to come along? It's only a friendly little chat."

"I'm not everyone. And your Mr. Marks doesn't run me." He put a little bit edge into his voice.

"Have your way." The man said in a friendly tone of voice and he brought the shotgun up and fired.

He hadn't expected the leader to be quite so fast and the shotgun blast broke his Shield and hit him, but not badly. Elizabeth made a small sound of surprise, but concentrated on staying quiet so not to be a distraction. The Sky-Hook was in his hand and he was hanging from a hook behind his attackers before them with pistols could fire.

As the group wheeled around in confusion looking for him, he was already plunging down towards the floor and their leader. The thug had a moment to lift up his arm to protect himself. It was useless and the Sky-Hook strike knocked the dead thug away like a broken rag doll.

He fired twice, dropping the pistol armed splicer and turned to face the tall one.

The taller one with a pistol fired, but missed as he scrambled for cover behind a large planter with a small tree in it. As he waited for his Shield to recharge, the man kept on firing, only putting holes in the planter.

"Kill you! KILL YOU!" he was screaming as he fired.

When the pistol was empty the fool just stood there and reloaded, not attempting to take cover. When his Shield recovered he stood put a bullet into the fools head.

While this had been going on, the other three attackers with the clubs had been slow to react and only had started to move towards him. He pointed the pistol right between the eyes of the closest one.

"Run or die, your choice."

The man's eyes bugged out a little as he stared of down the muzzle the pistol. He dropped the club and turned to run. The other two did the same after a moment's hesitation.

*Are you ok Booker?* Elizabeth asked as he used one of his First Aid Kits.

"Yeah, had worse. Guy with the shotgun was quicker than I thought he would be."

Booker the picked up the shotgun and walked over to check the leader's body.

*Nice to see at least some of these people still know when to run.*

His search of the bodies turned up 14 rounds of pistol ammo, six shotgun shells, some crackers and 44 dollars. As he searched, people started coming out from behind cover and resuming what they had been doing as if nothing happened.

He ate the crackers and headed back to the Circus of Values machine and purchased two more First Aid Kits and another Salt. Then went to the El Ammo Bandito and upgraded the pistol so it would do more damage and bought 12 more shotgun shells. His purchases had used up more than half the money he had been able to accumulate since the loss of his shoulder bag.

*Do you think they'll try to attack us again?*

"Yeah, not sure when. Might try again soon or they may wait. Any idea what to do with the two extra pistols?"

*Clarice's people may find them useful.*

"What I was thinking. In the meantime let's see if we can find that Green Room place."

They walked to the map and went over it carefully. "Nothing."

*Maybe we can ask Clarice when we talk to her.*

"I guess, let's go see if there is a clock or anything useful down here first."

*Would have been nice to gone with them to see what this Marks is like and get some information. But..*

"When we said "no" they would never have let me out alive."

After nearly half an hour of searching the before they found place with the correct time at "The Swiss Watch". While the shop was sealed behind a metal gate, they could see some of the stores products and the correct time. His watch was only about an hour twenty minutes behind which was a minor surprise to both of them.

They passed several doors, but didn't take time to fully investigate them other than to see that they were either smaller stairways or led to utility areas. They also found the Securis door that he had wanted to open with the Shock Jockey at the far end of the promenade.

Near one of the vandalized stores they found an Audio Diary.

_Walter Anderson : He's Alive_

_December 16, 1958_

_Fontaine's alive, I know it. He's here, somewhere, watching me. He knows I tried to sell him out. He's going to get me for it. Have to get some ADAM. Have to be careful, can't let anyone get close, let anyone get the drop on me. Some ADAM will help me find him. Get him before he gets me. He could be anyone. Any. One. _

In the process of returning to the stairway they passed by "Joe's Pizza". He took a moment see what they served and it turned out to be a short list that, and as he prediction, didn't include any pizza.

*Well, at least the food here should be better than the rations.*

"Wouldn't take much. Think Clarice is awake yet?"

*Likely. There are more people down here now than when first came down. And they seem to be keeping their distance.*

"Word gets around. Let's go see the nice lady."

-Elizabeth-

Elizabeth couldn't tell if Booker had said "nice" or "ice", but didn't ask. Both worked.

As Booker reached the foot of the stairs, he paused to double check his weapons and started climbing.

*Booker, I think Clarice is sicker than she is letting on.*

"Oh, what makes you think that?"

*When we talked to her earlier she didn't move her left arm and left hand much. Nerve damage seems to be a common problem with splicers.*

"And that's why she is so desperate for our help. She doesn't think she's going to be around much longer."

*I think she is more worried about her sanity. Her power is what has kept Atlas's people from taking total control down here. If something happens to her, her people are going to be at Marks mercy.*

"Get the feeling he doesn't have any."

They checked the pharmacy to make sure no one had tried to get in, but it seemed undisturbed. Then they headed up to the fourth floor. When they got to the third floor the guards backed off and one ran into the back and out of sight, likely to inform Marks of Booker's presence.

Booker didn't make any hostile moves towards them and politely said "Good Morning" to the closest one.

She thought being nice made the guard more nervous than if Booker had threatened him. When they reached the fourth floor they were coolly greeted by the two guards on duty. He asked if Clarice was available and was told to wait.

As they waited, he looked over the banister and down to the floor below.

*Checking on where to toss a few fireballs?*

He nodded. "Good defensive position, but a bad place to make an attack from." He said softly.

*You think we need to attack them.*

"Rather not. We need to get Marks, their leader. With him gone..."

*The group might fall apart.*

"Groups like this usually don't have a strong chain of command. The Vox were an exception. We need to get behind them somehow, inside their defenses." Booker stood and thought.

"How thick do you think the floors are here?"

*The floors? I have no idea.*

A voice came from behind them. "Dewitt, the Boss can see you now." They turned around to see Sam from yesterday. He had a sour look on his face, but didn't seem to be openly hostile as had been before. He led them in back without another word. When they got to the barricade which Clarice lived behind, he picked up a coat and tossed it to Booker and told him "She's waiting."

After putting on the coat, Booker pulled out the two extra pistols and handed them to Sam who looked at them for a moment with a slightly dumbfounded expression on his face before he took them.

"Thought you might have a use for these."

Sam muttered "Thanks" before walking off.

*Really, what's his problem?*

"Probably doesn't like it I might be a better fighter than him."

Booker knocked on the door of Clarice's meeting room. After a moment Martin called for them to come in. Clarice was seated at far end of the table in the same place as before. Martin was standing a little behind her and was dressed in a coat and a pair of heavy gloves. Elizabeth noticed marks on the frost covered carpet. Someone had just moved a chair away from where Clarice was sitting to a location further down the table. Booker took a quick glance at the chairs new position to tell her he had noticed it as well.

"So Mr. DeWitt, I hear you have had a busy morning already."

"Just wanted to get some breakfast."

"I get the feeling that Marks, he's the leader of the fools down there, isn't going to let that pass. You killed his leftenant. I do have a question though, why did you let three of them go?"

"Didn't need to kill them." Booker said simply.

That answer seemed to satisfy her. "And will you be able to help us?"

"Have some ideas. But going to need information to tell if they will work or not. Even then, a lot of thing can go wrong."

"What kind of information?"

"Do Ryan's security guards have a bathysphere here? Are there any mechanics among your people or anyone familiar with Bathyspheres Deluxe. That's just to start."

*Maybe we should write them all down.*

"Guess I better make a list. But we need to take care of Atlas's people first. They are the immediate problem. What can you tell me about them?"

Martin spoke up. "There're only about twenty five now. But they have more weapons than we do and all of them can fight. Only about a dozen of us up here are able bodied. Marks also has some support from splicers on the first floor, but not sure how much."

"Probably a little less now." *What kind of weapons do they have?* What kind of weapons do they have?"

"More than a dozen pistols and five, uh four shotguns. We think."

*Good, no Tommy Guns. There doesn't seem to be nearly as many weapons in this part of Fontaine's as there was in the other buildings. Lucky for you I guess. Even you would have a hard time surviving long with just a pistol.*

"What do you know about Marks. He's the key."

Clarice answered. "Marks and his leftenant "Louie", now deceased, worked for Fontaine before they came here. They quickly took up Atlas's cause."

*No surprise there.*

"What does he look like?"

"Big, black hair. Knife scars on his face. Or that's what he claims." Martin provided. "Not much smarter than he looks. Bullies others most of the time."

*Why am I getting a bad feeling about this?*

"Might have overestimated Marks. If he commands by force, the loss of so many people might push him to do something stupid." Booker paused. "Sorry to be blunt about this, but how sick are you Clarice?"

"Hey! You have…" Martin angrily started, but Clarice stopped him "Martin, please."

Martin back off a little, but didn't look happy about it.

"If I may inquire, why do you think I am ill?"

Booker made a gesture to the woman's left arm. "Your arm. You don't use it much, do you?"

She smiled sadly "No, no I don't. I am much sicker than I appear Mr. DeWitt. My mind is not what it was and I am suffering from nerve damage. The only reason I don't have huge crystals of ice on me is because I melt them off."

*Ask if she thinks some ADAM will help.* "Might some ADAM help?"

"It would only delay the inevitable, but I would be more able for a time. There is precious little ADAM here now. Never much to begin with."

"Found a message from someone named Eva. Said she had hidden some supplies in a place called "The Green Room". She might have had some something."

"Eva? We banished her some time ago. She was stealing from the others, wasn't she Martin?"

Marin seems displeased by the memory. "Yeah, stealing and we never got even half the stuff back. Never heard of any place called The Green Room though. Sounds like the name of a porn shop."

*He means pornography shop, they...uh, I'll explain later.* she finished quickly.

"Worth a try. And just to make something clear.." Booker listed up his left hand and used Devil's Kiss to create a fire around it before extinguishing it a moment later. "I do use, uh Plasmids."

*You almost said Vigor's, didn't you?* 'Going to have to break him of that habit.'

Martin was surprised, but Clarice's eye's narrowed. "Mr. DeWitt, you may very well have doomed yourself. ADAM did this to me and will do the same for you." She gripped the table and the wood cracked under her fingers.

"For this job, it's worth the risks. Now the best way to end this with Marks is to attack him before he attacks you."

Cold. The wood shattered.

"Are you advocating an attack? That is suicide."

How cold can Clarice get?

"Not a frontal assault. Getting behind them is what we need to do."

*Booker, look at the table in front of Clarice. The wood broke because of the cold. If she can get the floor cold enough, it could be shattered.*

Booker looked at the meeting table. "How cold can you make things over a large area? Say about four or five feet?"

Booker's non sequitur caught both Clarice and Martin by surprise. "I do not see the importance."

Elizabeth could hear the smile in Booker's voice. "We get behind Marks by going through the floor."

"The floor?" they asked in unison.

"Freeze the floor and it should be able to be broken easily. Will need to test it first to be sure, but should work."

Clarice and Martin looked at each other a moment before the woman responded. "My illness has weakened me. I don't believe I will be able to make a large enough area, cold enough for the purpose you described."

"If you had some ADAM?"

"Perhaps."

"Guess we need to find Eva's supply cache then. Can you show me where she was quartered and can we talk to her partner? Bob was his name."

*Ah, I get to see how you play detective.* This should be fun to see.

Martin made a face "Bob and... Guess I should have seen it. He left the day after Eva was kicked out. Went and joined Atlas's people."

"Just take me to where she lived then."

Martin hesitated a moment. "Go on Martin, we may be short on time."

"Follow me." Martin led them out of Clarice's rooms and down another corridor. Several people they passed looked at them curiously, but nothing more. Soon they came to a set offices turned into living spaces.

"Here it is, DeWitt."

"Call me Booker. Has anyone been in here since Eva left?"

"Naw, we have enough room so we haven't had to put anyone else in here."

The room had a small makeshift bed, a couple of pillows and several desks pushed into the corner of the room. Booker spent some minutes searching through things, but found nothing to indicate where the supplies she stole were or the location of The Green Room.

"She wouldn't have kept the goods with her. Too easy to find. But would want to keep them fairly close." Booker thought out loud.

His eye's focused on the blank wall ahead of them for a moment. It was painted blue.

"Not 'The' Green Room." *A room painted green.* 'So simple, it's hard.'

He turned around to speak to Martin. "Are there any rooms painted green nearby?"

"Uh, I don't know. Oh, I get it. Guess we should start looking."

It only took them a few minutes to find they first green room. It was an office with no furniture or decorations. Booker looked it over then dismissed it. "The room we are looking for would be furnished. Maybe some kind of safe in it."

Two doors down was the next green room. It was another office and Booker quickly found a locked storage closet.

*Guess someone really didn't like their office supplies being stolen.*

"Martin, found something. Let's see if this works." Booker set the code to 8726 and the door slid open.

*Eva and Bob were busy.* The closet held a bottle of Shock Jockey and Old Man Winter, a box of Shotgun shells, three boxes of pistol ammo, three Health Kits, a container of EVE, a small pile of jewelry and a stack of bills.

Martin leaned into the closet and his eyes widened in surprise. "Crap. How did they get so much?"

"One would steal and the other one would cover." Booker said as he reached into the closet and pulled out the Old Man Winter along with the EVE and passed them to Martin. He took them, but looked at them sadly.

"Anything else you want in here?"

"No, nothing else. I guess that's your pay for trying to get us out of there. There…"

Just then, a loud explosion rattled the corridor.

End Chapter 8


	9. Chapter 9

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 9

-Booker-

"Martin! Get those to Clarice, Now!" he ordered as he grabbed the box of shotgun shells, a spare Health Kit and took off running to the stairs. When he got there he found a hole blown in the barricade, one of the guards on the ground and the other firing his pistol at a mob of screaming club wielding splicers as they charged up the stairs.

He dropped the Med Kit by the injured man and fired his shotgun repeatedly into the advancing mob dropping three of them and slowing the charge. Several of Clarice's people arrived and added their fire to his, killing more and driving the rest back.

As the mob retreated, fire erupted from below forcing the defenders to seek cover. He reloaded his shotgun before drawing his pistol and returned fire, hitting one of the attackers.

"Where did they get a bomb?" he growled.

*With the right chemicals you can make explosives. If they can make one, they can make more.*

Didn't feel right. "These guys are cannon fodder."

He looked to his left and grabbed the woman besides him as she reloaded her pistol. "Hey, are there any other stairways?"

Startled she blurted out "Two more back there, but they're blocked off!"

"Not going to stay that way!" He yelled at two of nearby men "You two! Come with me! This is a diversion!"

Obeying without questioning, the two men followed him into the hallway as another explosion sent vibrations through the floor. "Damn!"

"This way!" one of the men called and headed down a corridor on the left. As they came to a bend he slowed down to stop at the corner, but other men didn't. He grabbed one of the men, but the other was too far ahead and he missed.

"Stop!" He yelled futilely as he hauled the one man back and the other went around the corner. A second later there was gunfire.

*Why did he...? Poor fool.* Elizabeth said grimly.

He poked his head around corner for an instant and back under cover before anyone could get a shot off. At least eight of Atlas's people were in the hallway, one had a shotgun and a couple more with pistols. The rest had clubs and were running down the corridor at them.

The man who had gone around the corner was an unmoving lump on the floor just a few feet away.

He brought up Devils Kiss and leaned around the corner to throw it while firing once from his pistol. He couldn't tell if the hit anything, but the fireball certainly did, engulfing four of the enemy. But as they died, return fire shattered his Shield and hurt him badly. He quickly used a Med Kit as the man whose life he had save moments before looked at him more than a little fearfully.

When his Shield had recovered he leaned around the corner and fired off a quick shot and the return fire missed or was absorbed by his Shield. The first fireball had done its job and the attackers had withdrawn part way back down the corridor, but two more of them had come from the stairway below.

'Most of their people must be downstairs trying to come up that stairway. We can end this.'

He hurled another fireball at them, but only was able to injure two of them, one of them he put one down with a pistol shot a moment later. As he got back under cover he noticed that it was getting cold. He glanced backwards and saw Clarice storming down the corridor towards them, an icy fog preceding her. Large ice crystals erupted from her shoulders and arms, while her eyes blazed with a cold fire.

*Wow, she is MAD.*

Martin was following up behind Clarice trying to get her to slow down, but the angry splicer was ignoring him. Sam was following behind, blood dripping from an arm wound, but still clearly eager to fight.

Martin called out "Booker, please help me stop her!"

To the man beside him. "Take over, just try to keep them from advancing."

He stood in Clarice's path, but how to stop her? Couldn't touch her. He set his hand afire with Devil's Kiss and waved it in front of her face like a torch. She stopped and glared at him.

"What do you think you are doing! I'm going to end this once and for all!" Her voice had taken on an odd echo.

He extinguished his hand. "We can end it. But if you try going down that corridor you'll be killed. Marks is probably right below us. We get him, we win. Understand?

"Clarice, listen to him, please." Martin begged her.

She looked at Martin and her expression softened and she relaxed a little. "My apologies, I still am not well."

*Her aggression level is rising. That's why she's scared. She's afraid that she will hurt someone if she can't control herself.*

"What do you wish of me Mr. DeWitt?"

"Stay with the plan. Freeze the floor so we can make a hole." He looked around a moment and pointed. "That room back there. That should put us behind Marks. Then come and take my place. We need to keep their attention up here."

"I will do as you say."

"Thank you." He rushed back to the corner and lobbed a fireball at a wall down the corridor so it would bounce off it before exploding. A scream told him that the trick had worked well enough. Sam came up and fired his shotgun down the corridor while he replenished his EVE.

The attackers with guns were staying in back and sending club armed splicers up the corridor at them. He had emptied his pistol down the corridor before Clarice came to relive him.

"Remember, just keep them occupied."

He ran back to the room where Clarice had done her work.

*Booker, how are we going to break the floor?*

"One of those things I hoped to figure out with the test."

They got to the room and found the entire floor and out into the corridor was covered in frost.

*Nothing heavy enough in here. We need something that can apply a great deal of force in a concentrated area.*

He looked his shotgun. *Well, worth a try I guess.*

They went into the room and fired four times into the floor forming a square. He planned to make a rough circle of holes in the floor and then kick it break in. As he reloaded they heard a loud cracking sound.

*Uh, oh" He turned to make a break for the door. Before he could take a single step, half the floor of the room collapsed into the room below, taking them with it.

He quickly picked himself off the shattered remains of the super cooled floor. He was already cold enough to start shivering.

*This isn't exactly how I envisioned it happening.*

"Worked. Let's hope nobody hear that." He finished reloading the shotgun and stepped out into the corridor.

*Floor plan seems to be the same at the floor above.*

He headed down the corridor towards the stairs that led up to the floor above and carefully checked around the corner. There were two men about halfway down, both facing the other way and armed with shotguns. At the far end of the corridor was a small group of several men and women mostly armed with clubs. They could hear the sounds of gunfire from echoing from the far end of the corridor.

He headed down the corridor as quickly and quietly as he was able. Wanted to take these two alive if he could.

One of the people at the end of the corridor chose that moment to look down their direction to see him and yelled a warning.

As the two men with the shotguns turned as he threw a fireball at them. The bigger the two grabbed the other and pulled him in front of himself to act of a shield as the fireball detonated.

That has to be Marks.

Marks pushed his now dead shield away from himself and raised his shotgun. But Marks was injured and slow. Booker fired first. Marks was hit, but didn't fall and fired back breaking the Shield. Booker's next shot put Marks on the floor for good.

The man who had called the alarm raised a pistol and started firing, but missed. He ducked into a side office to allow his Shield to recover and drew his pistol. When it was back up, he leaned around the corner to return fire, but stopped. The man with the pistol was on the ground being beaten by several splicers with clubs. The sounds of gunfire from above slackened.

*What just happened?*

He walked down the corridor towards them and called out. "Drop your weapons and surrender!" Two of the people did, but the last splicer ignored him and continued to hit the man on the floor. "I said drop it!" One of the men who had already dropped his club went and wrenched the club away from the other splicer and tossed it to the ground. The club less splicer looked disappointed, but slowly put his hands over his head.

The sounds of gunfire from above had totally stopped and after a minute Sam called down. "You alright down there DeWitt?"

"Yeah, fine. What are we going to do with these people now?" he called up.

Martin called back "We can stick 'em in an office for now. Send 'em up."

*That was fast. I expected them to fight harder.*

As the prisoners filed upstairs Booker explained. "These people were auxiliaries. Unwilling ones at that. Marks probably tricked them up here and forced them to fight for him."

*This fight wasn't about us at all.*

"Was going to happen anyway. Wonder why Marks was so desperate?"

*Wouldn't surprise me if Atlas had something to do with it. Booker, can you go back to the office we were in a minute ago? I would like to look around.*

Several of Clarice's people, led by Sam where coming down the stairs.

"Have to wait."

He went over to check on the man beaten by the splicer, but he was dead. Sam came out into the corridor and saw the body on the floor.

"Well, if it ain't Bob. Guess he got what he deserved. Come on. Still fighting at the main staircase.

-Elizabeth-

It turned out not to be a fight at all. As soon as Booker, Sam and the others showed up behind them, the last of Marks's people surrender without a fight. After that, they did a sweep of the entire floor looking for any stragglers.

Fifteen minutes later they were nearly finished so Booker told Sam to get himself patched up and that he would check the last few rooms. At the end of the corridors they found the body of a splicer hanging from the ceiling. He wore an expensive suite that had seen better days. Nearby was an Audio Diary.

_Walter Anderson: I've WON!_

_January 3, 1959 _

_I'm going to beat Fontaine. I finally figured it out. I know how to win now. It was so simple. I'm going to beat him to the punch! I WIN FONTAINE! You hear that! I WIN!_

Booker looked up at the body of Anderson. "Totally mad."

*Booker, I wonder if Clarice is right. That splicing is more dangerous than we thought it was.*

"Not much we can do about it now. If I didn't have my Vig…"*Plasmids, Booker, say Plasmids.*

"Ok, ok. If I didn't have my "Plasmids", I'd be dead right now. Don't like it either, but is there another choice?"

*I… no, none that I can think of.* 'I hope we can find a cure. I couldn't stand to see him go mad like Anderson did.' *Just remember, Anna needs her father.*

They started back down the corridor when one of Clarice's people called. "Hey, you that DeWitt guy? Got something Martin said you might want to see."

Booker followed the man to an office where a scratch built radio sat. *Looks a lot like the other one up in the other store. See if there are any papers around. We may be able to learn what Atlas is doing.*

Booker looked for a few moments and found a stack of papers in a desk drawer. "All in code."

*Looks like the same code as before. I should be able to read them easy enough.*

Booker turned to the man at the doorway. "Could you ask Martin if he can find whoever ran this thing. They might be useful." The man left to talk to Martin.

*Why do we need the operator? I already know the code.*

"A good operator can tell who is on the other end by how they hit the key. We try to send a message, they'll pick up that's not the person they know down here."

*Your thinking of trying to trick Atlas's people into giving us information.*

"Yeah. Wish I had a better idea though."

*Still, that is very sneaky, Mr. DeWitt. I approve.*

"Let's see if it works first."

They looked around the room a few minutes but found nothing else of interest. Booker checked his watch and discovered it as nearing noon.

"Better collect this and head up to talk to Martin and Clarice before getting lunch."

*Can we go check look at that room I mentioned before?*

"Sure."

'Why do I want to look at that room? Something else I forgot when I came back to Rapture?'

They walked into the room and Booker looked around a moment.

"So what did you see?"

*I didn't see anything. Just had a feeling.*

"Well, let's try the back office."

It turned out to be a records room filled with metal filing cabinets. All of them where open and their contents scattered about.

*Sorry, I guess this was a waste of time.*

"Maybe not." Booker said as he walked to the far end of the room.

*Strange. All the rest of the file cabinets are open, except that one.*

Booker pulled on the handle, but the drawer refused to open.

*Locked?*

"Stuck."

And with the sound of breaking metal Booker tore the stubborn drawer open to reveal an Infusion and a small crossbow bolt.

Booker picked up the Infusion and put it aside to examine the bolt. "What's this for?"

*It's a tranquilizer bolt for a small handheld crossbow. Hit a normal person with one and it knocks them out cold. Believe it or not they use these on children.*

"I believe it." he said sadly. "Seems like this might be something worth keeping."

*Not going to drink the Infusion?*

"Figure I would give Clarice's people first rights. Be surprised they want it though."

Booker picked up the Infusion and left the office to go to the fourth floor. Instead of going up the main staircase, he chose the one Atlas's people had used. Passing the destroyed barricade and a guard, they were greeted by the sight of five of Marks's men entombed in blocks of ice and others burned by flames.

Before seeing Clarice and Martin they went to recover the remainder of Eva's stolen goods. When they got there're Booker spent several moments examining things carefully.

*Going to hold off on the Shock Jockey?*

"Yeah, least until we have to take down Ryan's Guards."

They looked over the jewelry for a short time and found several wedding rings. "Can't keep theses."

*I hope the real owners are still around. Didn't think you were quite so sentimental.*

"Still have mine. Not worth much, but it's about the only thing I have left to remember her by."

*Your wife? You know, you never said her name or anything about her.*

"Annabelle. Her name was Annabelle." Booker sounded both happy and sad.

*You named Anna after her then.*

"I... yeah. Better get going. They're probably wondering where I got too."

'Anna's mother, MY mother. Annabelle. Annabelle DeWitt. Sounds nice.'

Soon they were back in Clarice's meeting room. Unlike before, the splicer was furiously pacing the room as a concerned Martin looked on. The ice crystals on her had grown larger and she was opening and closing her left hand repeatedly.

"Please excuse my agitation Mr. DeWitt. I feel better when I am moving."

"How many people did you lose?" Booker asked.

"Three. And many others are wounded. I wish you had not killed Marks. I could have…" She paused to regain control. "It is good he is dead."

"What about the prisoners?"

"Many of them were dragooned into fighting for Marks. We will let them go. Several of them turned to our side while the fighting was still going on. The others, I don't know. We cannot run a prison."

*In a prison, worrying about how to imprison someone else. Bet that doesn't happen often.*

"You only should have to hold them a day or two if things go smoothly."

The splicer seemed to be slowly calming down. "Is there anything else?"

"Several things actually. Marks had a radio, I have the messages. I should be able to decode them given a little time and find out a little of what Atlas is doing."

*YOU decode them? Humf!* she told Booker in mock anger.

"Also found this." he brought the Infusion into view.

"Don't drink that." Martin warned. "That stuff kills people."

*Infusions can kill? I saw you drink over a dozen of them in Columbia.*

"Never had any trouble with them."

Clarice had stopped pacing and gave a hard look at Booker.

"Also I can't keep these." He brought out the three wedding rings and placed them on the meeting table. "Hope you might find the owners."

"Mr. DeWitt, may I ask a personal question?"

"Don't see why not."

"Are you married?"

*I don't like where this is going.*

"No, not anymore."

"And the girl you are looking for. I believe Anna was her name, your daughter?"

*As I said, good instincts.* she said unhappily.

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

"No. It explains the risks you have taken and likely will continue to take. I can understand them."

"If that's everything?" The woman nodded. "I'll be heading back to the pharmacy to get to work."

"Your welcome to stay up here is you want." Martin offered.

"Thanks, but I have some odd work habits and would bother other people. I should be back tomorrow, say about 9?"

Martine and Clarice glanced at each other. "That will be fine. We shall see you then Mr. DeWitt."

*Be nice to stay up here, but you're talking to someone that isn't there for hours is a bit difficult to explain.*

They headed downstairs, but when they got to the second floor Booker continued down to the first. "Going to try out the pizza place for lunch. Has to be better than the better than the stuff out of that Circus machine."

*How much better will be the question.*

"Only one way to find out."

As they got near Joe's Pizza they could see frantic activity going on inside. Several people rushing around, looked like they were trying to get something ready as quickly as they could.

As Booker paused to look at the menu a man came out with a box of food. The man, whose name tag proclaimed him as "Joe", had a big, but slightly nervous, smile on his face.

"Here you go sir. Best of everything. Lunch and dinner. To go."

"But I didn't order anything." Booker replied, clearly puzzled by the situation.

*I think they don't want to have you eating in there. Probably afraid of another fight.*

Booker took the food as he asked how much it would cost.

"Nothing at all. It's on the house."

*Free food? Down here?* 'They aren't looking to avoid trouble. They're scared of Booker.'

"Stay." Booker told Joe when the man started to back away. Joe stopped moving. Booker fished some money out of his pocket and put it Joe's hand. "Have a nice day."

It occurred to her that she really had never been frightened of Booker. Angry at him, scared for him, irritated with him, revolted by him, cared for him more than anything in the world. But she had never been frightened of him. Even when he dropped into her tower she had been startled by him, but not really scared. Not like Joe was.

*Not going to turn down free food?*

"I'm not a thief." *Ahem!* "Well, not like that. Not running a protection racket."

*How often are people scared of you? I mean like Joe was.*

"Not that often these days. Usually it's after they tried something and got me angry. Happened a lot more often before I went to Columbia."

*I bet.*

"You would win that bet. Intimidation has its uses on occasion. Can stop trouble before it starts, but it can backfire. Rather not intimidate someone unless I have to."

They had arrived at the pharmacy. *Home, Sweet Home.* Booker Bypassed Betsy and went to the desk in back. He cleaned it off and set his food down. That was when she noticed it was getting dark again.

*This is getting to be irritating. Things are getting.. dark again.*

Booker got out his pocket watch. "Hm, your nap time is about 15 minutes later than yesterday."

*Booker, if.. I had feet I... would kick you...*

"I'm sure you would Elizabeth, I'm sure you would."

End Chapter 9


	10. Chapter 10

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 10

-Elizabeth-

It is like a black fog on her mind. She can't see, she can't hear, she can't THINK.

She is just aware that she is.

It lasts for only for an instant and the black fog slowly fades away and the world fades in to replace it. She can see, hear and think again. Thinking is slow to start with, hard even. But gets easier as time passes.

She could remember something. A knight in shining armor? Like THAT made any of sense.

She is looking at a desk, off to one side was the cardboard box they got from Joe's Pizza. Looks like Booker was done eating already. How long had she been gone this time? He was looking through the messages from Atlas to Marks. What was he? Ah. He was looking for dates. The newest messages were probably the most important.

*Afternoon Booker.*

"Afternoon Elizabeth. Enjoy your nap?" he asked as he got out his pocket watch to look at the time. She had been gone nearly 45 minutes this time.

*The dead don't need to sleep Booker.*

"But you do."

Why won't he just accept that I'm dead? It will just hurt him more the longer he thinks I'm alive. Not really the time to talk about it now.

*Looks like you want to do some of the decoding first.*

"Figured the more we know what's going on, the better the plan. Sure you can do this?"

*Let me see the first page and I'll show you.*

Three hours later, they had most of the messages decoded and Booker was starting to go cross-eyed. He had been acting as her secretary as she did the decoding and in some ways she thought it had been harder for him than her. He had to be very exacting in following her instructions, what word to read and how fast to read and more. She wondered how many people would be so calm to have a dead person talking to them much less taking orders from one. Of course how many people would be calm about *being* dead.

Guess part of being a DeWitt was being adaptable.

The messages unfortunately gave them few clues to what was going on up in Rapture. She thought a newspaper would have been more informative, even a censored one. They did mention that Ryan's people were doing construction work inside the Fontaine's building up by Rapture, but other than that there was no information on it.

And they learned why Marks had been so determined to take over the store. Atlas wanted a distraction that would draw off some of the Ryan's security people. Or if possible, pull off a breakout. The messages Atlas sent to Marks seemed a lot more informal than the ones she had seen in the other building. Marks must have been fairly high up in Fontaine's organization.

And she had found out something about her current state. She had been able to decode the messages well enough, but it had harder than when she was alive. She could only concentrate on things for so long and her mind would start to wander. It was almost like she was a child again. If it got worse she would have to tell Booker, but for now she was able to deal with it.

Booker blinked several times and rubbed his eyes. "Think I need some time away. Never been much for paperwork. Want to take a walk?"

*Sure. Have any place in mind?* She could use the break as much as he did.

"Couple of the staircases on the first floor seemed to go down. Might be good to see how far. And take a look where that Big Daddy came from."

As they left the pharmacy the Big Daddy and the Little Sister where walking into the bakery turned batting cage. She noticed that the Bouncer smashed one of the balls flat with an armored foot as he followed the girl.

"That reminds me, the "baseball players" had a baseball signed by someone named "Babe Ruth" in with their valuables. Know the name?"

*No, but I didn't pay attention to sports. Who knows what splicers consider valuable.*

"Guess you're right."

*You play baseball?*

"No. Was thinking of taking Anna to game, but she would probably rather play than watch it."

As they descended to the first floor she noticed there a fairly large number of people around. A few of the shops that had been closed earlier were now open. People milled about, talked with each other and shopped. It would have almost seemed normal except for the ADAM sickness. Some of the splicers would be talking to no one, two were fighting for no apparent reason and one woman was dragging around an adult sized mannequin dressed as a young boy.

*These people have tried to keep their society functional down here. To what purpose?*

"Maybe they think Ryan will let them go back to Rapture."

*Good luck with that.*

They headed over to the Circus of Values where Booker stocked up on Health Kits, EVE and ammunition. Then he went over to the Gene Bank to look at it.

*Looking to upgrade?*

"Not yet, checking what's available. An upgrade for Bucking Bronco?"

*Suchong copied that one along with Possession and the others we have seen. Guess he didn't have time to copy a Murder of Crows, Ironsides or Undertow.*

"Ironsides? Don't recall that one."

*It seems to be a variation of Return to Sender. I found it on the First Lady in Columbia. It was better at catching bullets, but you can't toss them back at the enemy like you could with Return to Sender.*

"Any other Plasmids I should know about?"

'Huh! It was a lot easier getting him to say Plasmids than I thought it would be.'

*Peeping Tom was another one I used when I was in the other store. I could turn invisible and look through walls to see things and people. It would make it a lot easier for you to sneak around if we could find some. One Plasmid that many people are using is called "Teleportation". They disappear from one location and show up in another twenty or thirty feet away a second later. Some of the people Ryan sent after me when I turned him down used it. Fighting them… wasn't easy.*

"But you won." Booker said with a hint of pride.

*Yes I did, but I'm not proud of it.*

"You didn't let them beat you Elizabeth. Most people would have just given up and joined Ryan. You didn't. Something to be proud of."

*I guess.* 'Too damn stubborn to give up is what you mean.'

*Now, there are injectable versions of Vigors, such as Electro bolt, Incinerate and Winter Blast. With the war going on in Rapture, I imagine a lot of people are spliced up now. They certainly will have developed new Plasmids since I died, so you're going to have to be careful.*

As they had been talking, they had walked down to the double doors the Big Daddy had used the day before. Elizabeth noted that the splicers around tended to keep their distance from Booker as they had before.

Except one, and he seemed to be walking directly towards them. He was tall and more than a little overweight. He looked to be in his 40's and had dark hair starting to turn grey. The expensive suit he wore was a perfectly tailored and was accessorized with a top hat and cane.

*Would You Look At That.*

"First fat person I can recall seeing down here." Booker said under his breath.

*You don't trust fat people?*

"Not in a place where food is hard to get and they dress like that."

As the man approached, he put a jovial expression on his face and called out to Booker.

"Hello, there my good man. Might I have a word with you?"

"Don't see the harm." Booker said neutrally.

"Ah yes. I can see you are a man of intelligence Sir. I am Herbert Witherspoon, Esquire, at your service." he smiled broadly and took a small bow.

*Can this guy lay it on any thicker?* At first she had thought that he wasn't a splicer, but a closer look at him showed warped flesh on the man's neck and the back of his right hand.

"And what services can you provide Mr. Witherspoon?"

"Oh sir, a very wide range of services. I specialize in acquiring certain things that are, let us say rather difficult to get here at the moment. I also have time to time become aware of certain pieces of information that may prove to be very useful to a gentleman in your position."

*Smuggler and information broker. I wonder how much he sells to Ryan?*

"And where might I find you, If I am need of your services Mr. Witherspoon?"

"If you need to contact me just leave a message at Rafael's Suites. I believe you are familiar with the fine establishment."

*Booker, he's splicer, but isn't suffering much from ADAM sickness. Someone must be supplying him.*

"Yes, I am. Come to think of it, there may be something you can help me with. My original job is a bust, but there is someone down here I would like to meet."

"Ah, yes Sir. And what is the name of this fine individual?"

"Calls himself Booker DeWitt."

Witherspoon's pudgy face betrayed confusion for an instant before he recovered and a broad smile covered his face. "I don't recall hearing that name before, Sir. But, I Shall make some inquires. Might you have a description of this gentlemen?"

"Looks a lot like me I'm told," *Older and has white hair.* "but older and with white hair. You can leave a message at the Suit store if you find anything. We can talk about your fee when you have the information. Now if you'll excuse me, I have something I would like to take care of."

"Thank You for your time, Sir." he said as Booker turned away. "And if I may offer some Free Advice? Be careful down there. I wouldn't want to lose your business."

They walked through the double doors and into the wide corridor beyond. Booker stopped walking after the doors closed and examined the corridor ahead of them. Some of the lights were out, there was trash, old tools and clearing supplies left around. Puddles of water covered parts of the floor.

*So what are you planning to use Witherspoon for?*

"Feed bad information to Ryan's people. Couldn't trust anything I would get from him."

*That's what I thought when you said you were looking for Comstock. You caught him off guard and will be feeding Ryan's people bad information as well.*

"He knew who I was already, and don't think Clarice's people told him."

*How often do you do that sort of thing? Say something to catch people off guard like that.*

"Depends on the job. Can be helpful to catch people off guard or make them think I know more than I do."

*Sounds interesting.*

"Not really. Most of the time I'm talking to people who'd rather not to talk to me. I'm not exactly Sherlock Holmes."

*Sherlock who?*

"Humf. Comstock didn't allow his books into your tower. Sherlock Holmes is a popular fictional detective from England who uses 'deductive logic' to solve his cases. You'd probably like 'em."

'Booker reading detective stories? I have GOT to hear more about this.' *And why would a real detective be reading about a fictional detective?*Makes for a good cover. No one would think a real detective would be reading about a fictional one. Even got an idea or two from them."

*Well, I'll never get the chance to read them now. Let's get back to the real "case" we have.*

"Always on my mind."

–Booker–

It was hard to hear Elizabeth when she talked about things she missed in her life. So many things she was never able to do. But he didn't think it would be smart of him to push her too hard that she was not out of chances to do those things. He could tell her what he knew and she wouldn't think he was lying, but she wouldn't think he was right either.

He needed some kind of proof to back up what he would told her.

They started walking down the corridor and the difference in character struck him. This area was much plainer then the promenade on the other side of the doors. Painted concrete and unpolished metal dominated. There were electrical panels on the walls and cables running along the ceiling, some occasionally letting lose sparks or two.

The first room on the right had a stairway leading down to what looked like a workshop. But it was half filled with water from a large leak in the ceiling despite the best efforts of a pump in the room. The machinery was already badly rusted.

"Uh, Elizabeth. This place safe?"

*Probably not. Comstock said these building are sunk beyond their design specifications and it causes leaks and pipe breakage. Looks like the pumps are able to keep up, so I don't think there's any immediate danger. Saw a lot bigger leaks in the other stores, but they hadn't flooded.*

"All of Rapture leak like this?"

*I never saw anything, but there were rumors of problems in other parts of the city.*

"Best be shut of this place before something happens that the pumps can't keep up with."

They went just a short way further and found large room filled with strange equipment the likes he had never seen before. Flashing lights, rapid clicking sounds, reels of tape, keyboards and stacks of papers everywhere. The doors to the room had been ripped open by something. Booker walked into the room looking over everything.

*I think these are computers. They are machines that can't exactly think, but can carry out a very large number of complex orders and tasks.*

"Like the Patriots?"

*Yes, each Patriot certainly had some sort of computer in them. But I sure these are much better than those were.*

"Hope these don't have guns."

*They shouldn't, but there should be some sort of security in here.*

"There was." he said as found the remains of a security camera. It looked as if it had been ripped off its mountings. Next to it was the corpes of a man dressed in ragged cloths with an empty box strapped to his back. Looked like he had been beaten to death. On the floor a few feet away was an Audio Log.

_Edith Butler: Have To Protect Myself._

_December 29, 1958_

_He wouldn't stop hurting me, so I MADE him stop. I not going let them do it to me anymore. Found a stash of Tonics. Made myself Strong. Going to hurt THEM now! Let's see how they like being on the receiving end. Going to go find more. Get stronger. _

*I can understand how she feels, being helpless.*

"Everyone is helpless at some time Elizabeth."

*I have a hard time seeing you being helpless Booker.*

"I couldn't stop Ryan's men from taking Anna, Songbird tossed me around like a ragdoll and my …. let's say I know how it feels as much as anyone else."

*I guess you do. I wonder where she found those Tonics? Seems an unlikely place for them.*

"About as unlikely as finding an Infusion in filing cabinet?"

*Point.*

As they had talked, he had been searching the room but had only found a few dollars and a bottle of Hop Up Cola. The only place they had yet to search was a room with heavy glass windows that overlooked the computer room from above.

*You actually like the taste of that Hop Up stuff?* Elizabeth asked as he climbed the stairs.

"Not really, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Right side first?"

*Why not?* *By the way, why do you ask me about things like that anyway? It's not like I have any choice in the matter.*

"Since you can't do anything on your own right now, thought you should a little say in what I do."

*Thank you.*

"You're welcome." He couldn't help but smile a little. Something so simple could make this place seem a little brighter.

There were three desks in this part of the room, one of which had something Elizabeth called a terminal built into it. He found one creme-filled cake, an Octo Vitamin Pep Bar, five dollars and a pack of cigarettes. Absent mindedly he tossed the cigarettes into a nearby trash can and moved on to an alcove at the far end of the room.

*You don't smoke anymore?* Elizabeth asked sounding slightly surprised.

"No, quit. Found out that it made Anna cough. Damn hard to do it too. Never realized how addictive they are." "And what do have we here?"

In the alcove was a large wall mounted safe with a combination lock.

*When she gets older, can you make sure she doesn't pick up the habit. Please?* Did she sound a little embarrassed?

"Had planned on it. Any idea's on the safe?"

*Other than hoping someone wrote the combination down someplace or we can find a Hack Tool, none.*

"Hack Tool?"

*Something I heard about. It's some kind of tool that can open locks and reprogram or "hack" into vending machines to lower the prices. You might even be able to reprogram the security systems with one.*

"Sounds like I should get one of those."

*They seemed to be rather rare. If there are any here, they would probably be in the maintenance department.*

"Let's see what else is up here."

They searched the other half of the room and found a few shotgun shells and a dusty Audio Log.

_William Pickering: The System_

_July 17, 1957_

_Mr. Fontaine wanted his own computers running his businesses and in his research labs. Didn't cotton to the idea that someone else could see what he was doing. So he brought me in to design and build them for him. And I did._

_Then I saw some.. things. Things I didn't like. I tried to break my contract, leave. But Fontaine had his people all over me, no way out. _

_Now I'm part of the system that runs this place as much as any of my computers are. _

"No combination here. Guess we better move on."

They had just finished walking down the stairs when they heard voices from down the corridor.

"You sure he's in here?" a thin whiny man's voice asked.

Another deeper male voice responded. "Yeah, I'm sure."

"I don't like it here. There's water, dirty water. I don't like dirty water." a woman complained.

"Heh, you don't like clean water very much either. Don't worry, we get this guy and we're gonna be Rich!" The whiny voice said.

"Shut up both of you. He'll hear you." The deeper voice responded.

*A little late for that.*

While they had been talking in the corridor, he had quietly taken up a position behind the racks of computers opposite the door. It was a bottleneck and he should be able to hit at least two of them at once with the shotgun as they walked through the door.

"In here?" the woman asked to a stage whisper.

"No, he's supposed to be further in." the deeper voice replied.

The footsteps of the three passed the door to the computer room and continued down the corridor.

He carefully made his way to broken doors after a few moments had passed and took a quick look outside. He was able to catch a glimpse of the three as they turned a corner to the left further down. They could just hear the one with the deeper voice say "Off this way", but nothing after that.

*They weren't after us. Rather an odd feeling actually.*

"Guess it's a reminder that not everything is about us."

*I wonder who they are looking for?*

"Not our business. Let's see what else is around here."

They slowly walked down the corridor and took a right down a smaller branching corridor the trio had ignored. They came to a door that had the label of "Break Room". Booker opened the door to find a small area filled with cheap looking tables and chairs. On the tables where magazines, paper's, ashtrays and battered plates with spoiled food on them. Posters for Fontaine products and "employee reminders" covered the walls. Someone had managed to get a "Who is Atlas?" poster in there though. Along one wall were several vending machines and a Circus of Values. In front of the one of the vending machines was a body.

As they approached, Booker could see this one was different than others. He was on his back and his hands were out in front of him frozen in claw like pose. His face looked as if it had been burned, but there was little fire damage to his cloths.

*This is.. odd.*

"He's burned, but not his clothes."

"Electricity can cause burns, but it would take a lot power to do it.*

"Shock Jockey?"

*No, more than Shock Jockey can produce.*

"Must have been killed someplace else and moved here." Booker did a quick search, but found nothing. The room itself surrendered only a pep bar, a steel flask and some bandages. Booker opened the flask, took a sniff of its contents and shook his head.

"Don't think I would have drunk that even when I was still drinking." He said as he put the flask on a table.

After that they went over to the Circus of Values where Booker looked over the contents and prices for a moment.

*What are you thinking Booker?* Elizabeth asked in a slightly suspicious tone.

"Just wondering what Bypass would do to one of these."

*Well, the papers you found did say that it would work on them. Might as well try now.*

A moment later the Circus of Values was surrounded by bright blue flames and he checked the prices again. They had dropped from what they had been before by a significant margin. And to his surprise a new selection for Machine Gun ammo had appeared.

*That worked better than I expected.*

"Odd that Machine Gun ammo isn't listed unless you hack it."

*There is probably some security of some sort that allows only authorized people to see it.*

"Atlas's people could be getting ammunition from these machines that Ryan's people can't. Or the other way around. Let's see what else is about."

They left the Break Room and found that the side corridor they had taken looped around to the main corridor again. Ahead of them was the corridor the trio of splicers taken. Booker glanced back up the corridor to the computer room and saw that there was a door they had not investigated. Another door to their right was blocked off by a metal gate.

"Better backtrack a bit."

*Don't want to leave anything behind?*

"Don't like the idea of someone being behind me."

They walked back to the door and found it locked. Through the window they could see several computers that had been taken apart and what looked to be repair equipment.

"Doesn't seem to be a way in."

*There's an air vent, looks like it leads to the Computer Room next door.*

"You could fit through that Elizabeth, I'm a little too big."

*Sorry. Guess I got use to crawling through vents.*

"Don't think there is anything in there anyway."

They headed back down the corridor and followed the path the three splicers had taken earlier. The corridor only went about fifteen feet and made a turn to the right. Only half the lights worked in this section and it was rather dark. They found a closet that stored cleaning supplies, but it contained nothing of use to them.

The next room looked like it had been a classroom or something similar. It was hard to tell as there had been a fight in the room. Tables and chairs had been thrown around enough force to break them and damage the walls. One table was actually partially embedded in a wall. The body of a very large man dressed in ragged clothes lay at the other end of the room.

*Never heard of a Tonic or Plasmid that could do something like this.*

"Whoever did this is a lot stronger than I am."

As they walked towards the body Booker realized he had been wrong. It wasn't man, but a woman, a horribly distorted woman. Her arms were nearly as thick as his upper leg and her face looked closer to that of an ape. One of her hands was much larger than the other and her legs didn't seem to be the same length. Like the body they found earlier she had been badly burned, but the remains her clothes only had a few scorch marks on them.

"Now we know who did all this."

*The way she is.. changed is like nothing I heard of. I don't think this is from ADAM sickness Booker. This could be the results of some formula that didn't work as intended.*

"What worries me is what or who she was throwing everything at."

*And whatever killed her, also killed the other one.*

A few moments of searching turned up an Audio Log. The voice on it low guttural. Was hard to tell it was a woman.

_Edith Butler: I Strong._

_January 18, 1959_

_Not going to push me out. My home now. I strong. Stronger than him. Can beat him. I Strong. I STRONG!_

*Whatever she was using did more than just add muscle, it seemed to have caused her mind to degenerate.*

"Think now would be a good time to leave. I didn't come down here looking for a fight."

*You'll get no argument from me.*

As they walked to the door of the room, they heard the sounds of gunfire.

Then the screaming started.

End Chapter 10


	11. Chapter 11

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 11

-Booker-

When he heard the gunshots he drew his pistol and rushed to the doorway. Seeing the corridor was clear, he left the room, but by then the screaming had already stopped.

*Are we going to help them?*

"Don't think anyone left to help." he said very quietly.

The gunshots and screams has come from a short distance down the corridor and from around a corner. He headed the other direction towards the doors to the promenade. He had taken only a few steps and a voice called out. It was deep, but distorted, like it came from a damaged radio speaker.

"You are nOt allowed to Leave. I have DEClared This."

The corridor from where the voice came from was getting brighter, as if someone were carrying a bright blueish light.

"Hey buddy, not looking for a fight." he called back.

"Fight? TheRe will bE no fight. Just an EXECUTION!" the voice roared and its owner stepped into view.

It was a human like figure with huge glowing crystals jutting out of his back and shoulders. Smaller crystals grew out of his head arms and torso. Small bolts of lightning arced from crystal to crystal. His eyes glowed a hellish blue. The light from the crystals was so bright that he could not see details, but the splicer's flesh looked melted. The Jockey wore a tattered white coat and ragged pants that exposed more crystal growths on his legs.

The splicer raised his right hand and a bolt of lightning shot out of it. Booker dodged to the side and fired his pistol back. The round hit the splicer, but didn't seem to have much effect.

"I have Evolved! You aRe Nothing to ME!"

He wasn't able to dodge the next bolt, but his Shield took the brunt of the attack. Still, he was nearly immobilized for a moment as the electricity played over him.

"You are weaK! And For THat you Shall DIE!"

The effects of the electrical attack wore off and he hurled a fireball at the Jockey and hit the splicer full on. As he screamed in pain Booker put two more rounds into him and ran around the corner pausing only to drop a Devil Kiss Trap.

"I SHaLL Electrify yOur SOUL for THAT!"

Ahead of him were the doors leading out, but they were too far away. So he stopped and turned just as the splicer walked around the corner and into the Devil's Kiss Trap.

As the Trap detonated engulfing the splicer in fire, he fired three more times, but thought he might have missed once.

"I will make yOur Death Long and painFULL wEakling! WEEEAKLING!"

The splicer held his hands up and electricity from all the crystals on his body flowed between them, building up a charge.

His situation flashed through his mind in an instant. Shield down. Salt low. Pistol empty. Range was too great for shotgun. No room to dodge. No cover. Need to get out of the corridor now. Computer room.

He broke into a run for the doorway to the computer room as he reloaded his pistol. As he entered the computer room he glanced down at the splicer and saw a ball of electricity coming down the corridor at him. It looked very much like the ones loosed by a Handyman. Then ball hit the door frame behind him and detonated, the edge outer edge grazing him.

'Damn! FEELS like something from a Handyman.' He quickly used a Health Kit and replenished his Salts.

"WeaklinG! You haVe sealed your Fate! I AM Evolved and all the weaklinGs here shall parish as yOu SHall!"

The Jockey was coming up the corridor after them. He took cover behind the banks of computers and unlimbered his shotgun. The splicer stepped through the ruined doorway and he stepped out from behind a computer, fired the shotgun and withdrew before a lightning bolt burned through space he had occupied a split second before.

"You, yoU SHall p, pay for ThaT!"

As he reloaded the shotgun, he moved down between the banks of computers, and as he expected the splicer charged the location he had just left. As the Jockey came into view he hit him with another fireball and shotgun blast. The Splicer let loose an ill aimed bolt of electricity that made a computer explode in shower of sparks as he fired the shotgun again.

The splicer staggered and fell to the floor, some of the crystals shattering as he hit. There was a blinding flash and bolts of electricity harmlessly shot around the room. The downed splicer stopped moving and the bolts of lightning faded away.

Reflexively he reloaded the shotgun and approached the downed splicer to make sure he was dead. Carefully he rolled splicer over and got his first good look at his face.

*Good God!* exclaimed Elizabeth. Her voice sound odd to him, distorted like a badly tuned radio.

The splicers face was a twisted mass of flesh that more resembled a melted candle than anything else. He had no ears and his nose was a sort stump with two slits beneath it. His teeth had been either covered or replaced by small crystals giving the impression of fangs. Even in death, his eyes still glowed a dull blue. Thought about closing the splicer's eyes, but didn't think he had eyelids.

"Think I'm going to put off using that Shock Jockey for a spell." he said in a soft voice.

*I think that's a very good idea. I've never heard of the mutations from ADAM use being so extreme. First Edith and now him. Even the Jockey we saw downstairs wasn't nearly mutated as this one is. I wonder...*

Elizabeth's voice sounded more normal now, but still a little off.

He let Elizabeth think as he very carefully checked the dead splicer for anything he could use and came up with two bottles of Salt. EVE. As he searched the corpse, he noticed that the broken crystals would throw off an occasional spark or tiny bolt of lightning.

"So, what are you wondering about Elizabeth?"

*I think Suchong may have had a laboratory someplace in this building. We found several crates from his name on them already and we have two people that look like they have used some Plasmids or Tonics that were badly flawed.*

"And you think it's nearby and that we should go find it to make sure that no else ends up like him and Edith."

*Well, yes.*

"Was thinking that if I hadn't come down here this guy would still be alive."

*I.. Booker, you didn't come here looking for a fight.*

"He's still dead. Let's get going."

*Booker, when the Jockey hit you earlier? Did you notice anything? I mean about how I sounded?*

"You did sound a bit strange when you first started talking."

*That's what I thought. When he hit you, my vison and hearing became distorted. The only thing I can compare it to is radio static. I'm wondering that if you use the Shock Jockey, it might have the same effect.*

"Guess I won't use the Shock Jockey then."

*That might leave you at a disadvantage.*

"Elizabeth, you're the biggest advantage I have."

*Well, just… don't get to use to me being around.*

They walked back down to the corridor and he went to the Bypassed Circus of Values in the Break Room for another Health Kit. Then they went to the corridor where the Jockey had come from and quickly discovered five bodies. Three of them where the splicers they had seen just a few minutes before, while the other two had been dead for days.

A search turned up five rounds of pistol ammo and a single shotgun shell.

Elizabeth gave a small sigh. *Seems like people who were desperate come down here to try and kill the Jockey. They must have thought that he had something.*

"Or someone put a bounty on him."

*A bounty?*

"Yeah, maybe someone wanted him dead for some reason. Ryan, Atlas or somebody else."

*Was collecting bounties part of your job?*

"Sometimes. More likely I would run across someone with one by accident."

They spent some time looking around the area discovering seven more bodies before they found the room the Jockey had made his home in. It was filled with shorted out electrical equipment and had wires strung all over the place with pieces of crystal hanging from them. The crystals gave off an eerie blue glow that illuminated the room.

*This place almost looks like some sort of strange art exhibit. Cohen would probably like it. You think these crystals from the Jockey?*

He reached up to touch one and got a slight shock from it. "Think so. Guess they fell off while he "evolving"."

A search of the dead splicer's home uncovered nothing of worth and they explored the rest of the area finding several storage rooms for parts, a large repair shop, a pump station and several offices. His efforts only netted a small amount of money, a few more pistol rounds and a couple of cans of fish and vegetables. Elizabeth remarked that they would taste a lot better than the rations would.

In a mailroom they found the remains of a crate marked "Suchong Laboratories" that had been smashed against the wall. Broken glass covered the floor. It was certainly the remains of Edith's "stash".

One of the hallways had suffered a collapse from above and prevented further exploration. As they walked back to the exit they passed a dimly hallway that went down fifteen feet and ended. Elizabeth asked him to stop and take a closer look.

"You have a feeling something is down here?"

*No. This hallway makes no sense from a structural standpoint. It doesn't need to be here. And considering how badly Suchong hid his lab in Artemis Suites, it seems likely that he do a poor job here as well.*

They walked down the short hallway and examined the wall at the dead end. "Nothing here or it's well hidden."

Booker turned around and started looking at the floor. There was dust at the end of the hallway, but none further up towards its beginning. Then he crouched down to get a better angle.

*What are we looking at?*

"Dust."

*Dust?*

"When you walk you leave a track. How much of a track depends on what you're walking in. Here it's dust."

*Pick that up reading a Sherlock Holmes story?* Elizabeth asked in a teasing tone.

"Huh, no, hunting. Same basic rules, just a different environment."

*I see what you're talking about. There's a path in the dust.*

They followed the path to where it ended at the wall near a piece of equipment with pipes running out of it. In a few moments he pushed the hidden button to open the disguised door in front of them.

-Elizabeth-

As the door slid open the lights revealed equipment, beakers, test tubes, chalk boards full of equations and disorganized piles of papers.

*What a mess. Could you look at some of the papers on that counter to the right?*

Booker obliged and spent several minutes looking though papers under her direction.

*Well, this isn't Suchong's handwriting and it's not even in code. I think that Jockey might have been experimenting on himself.*

"Doesn't sound like a good idea to me."

*It's not. He might have increased his abilities, but at what cost? Let's see if there is anything useful here.*

The lab was fairly small, consisting of only a few rooms. Elizabeth said that it seemed to be focused on the development of Plasmids and Tonics. In the third room they found an Audio Log.

_Yi Suchong: Irritations_

_September 15, 1958_

_Ryan going to put people in Fontaine Store and sink. Suchong happy Suchong not one of people. Loss of equipment and employees' regrettable, but not important. Buy new equipment and new people. Loss of files intolerable. Make trip back to recover them. Irritating. Loss of device in Silver Fin very irritating. _

"Real nice guy that Suchong was."

*He fit in perfectly in Rapture. Only cared about himself and his science.*

The next room had two television screens in it, though one of them had been smashed. The working one showed the hallway outside. She took a moment to explain what they were and Booker pretended to be suitably impressed by the technology. Then he reached out to turn the knob under the working TV and the scene switched to a location she didn't recognize. Another click showed a small bathysphere bay, unfortunately there was no sphere in it. One more click showed a large room with five of Ryan's Guards in it.

"That must be downstairs."

*Right hand side, that must be the elevator that John was going to send us down in.*

"And there's John."

John stood by as another man was apparently having a conversation with someone over a shortwave radio. It went on for several minutes and several of the guards walked over to listen as it went on. She could see one of them shake his head at something that was said while another covered his mouth to keep from laughing. A minute more and the conversation clearly ended.

She couldn't see it, but she heard Booker reach into his pocket and pull out his own shortwave.

*Booker, what are you up to?* She tried to sound suspicious, but was certain about what he was going to do.

"Hey Alex. You listening? It's DeWitt."

On the screen the man next to John lifted up his radio again to speak into it.

+_Yeah, I'm here. To what do I owe the pleasure._+

"Thought you should know that there aren't any Atlas supporters up here anymore. Well, none that aren't locked up."

+_Is that supposed to mean anything?_+

"There are some people up here that don't like Atlas and would like to go home. Seems like you might be able to help them with that."

On the screen reactions from Ryan's men varied. One laughed, another seemed to like the idea while several others seemed to not to believe what they heard. Alex for his part didn't seem to react much.

+_Sorry, the most I can do is put in a good word. And that won't count for much. But the offer I made yesterday is still open._+

"Hum. Job didn't work out like it was supposed to. Guess I'll have to think about your offer now."

+_Well don't think to long DeWitt. Offer's not going to be open forever._+

"I'll give you a call tomorrow. That ok?"

+_Ok, hope the offer is still good then. Not my decision on how long it lasts._+

Booker put away the radio and studied Alex on the screen for a moment. A fairly large man, but getting fat. He did a once over of the other men and made a dismissive sound.

"Don't think these guys wouldn't have lasted long as cops back home."

*Have to admit they don't seem overly enthusiastic about their job.* she said as one of the men on the screen started throwing darts at a makeshift target on the wall, while another picked up a newspaper and started reading.

"Think they might have been sent down here because they would be no good in a firefight. Down here they can still be useful. And if they happen to be killed, wouldn't be a much of a loss."

*I wonder if any of them figured that out.*

"No way to tell. Now let's see how many there are."

They watched for some time and were only able to see six guards. Booker thought that there would be more sleeping or on duty someplace else and planned to deal with at least nine.

*We might be able to find if there are other guards by switching to another camera.*

"Yeah, not going to learn anything more watching those guys." Booker switched to the next camera, but there was no picture, the last camera showed a large Bathysphere docking station. And there were two bathyspheres there docked in it.

*There! They have two Manta Rays. Not the best model, but they should have no trouble making the trip to Rapture and back.*

"How many people could you get in one of those?"

*Six safely. For a short run, maybe seven. But trying to get up to Rapture with seven people, I doubt they would make it alive.*

"Means they could only put twelve people down here and safely get them out in an emergency."

*Twelve or even nine people is a lot to take out with my gas bomb. We will need to draw as many of Ryan's people as we can to the bomb.*

"And what do you think would make good bait?" She could hear the amusement in his voice.

*You.* He Better not be thinking of using himself as bait.

"Or if they think it's me. What would happen if your gas bomb went off in an elevator and the doors were open?"

*The confined space would force the gas into the room beyond, but only about ten or fifteen feet. Be better if we could put a small explosive charge on the container backed with a piece of metal. That would direct the gas cloud in the direction we want. It should cover most of the room, if not all of it.*

"Martin would know if Marks people had any more explosives. If it comes down to it, we can dump the powder out of some shotgun shells and use that."

*And you made a bomb like that before.*

"Well, no. But seen it done." "Kinda."

*That's Very comforting.*

"Yeah, let's hope that Marks didn't use up all their explosives and fuses. Let's see what else Suchong had in here."

As they searched one the last two rooms she wondered why Suchong had a camera watching a sphere docking bay. And where was this bay? It had to be close by.

*Booker, keep a watch for another hidden door. There might be another entrance to this lab.*

Booker finished a fruitless search of the fourth room and was walking into the last one which contained an ornate desk and had papers strewn about. He paused a moment and looked around. Then pointed to a blank section of wall.

"Other doors probably there."

*And why should it be there?* she asked both puzzled and skeptical at the same time.

"Only wall around here that doesn't have anything on it." She thought a moment and realized Booker was right. All the other walls that equipment, power cables, shelves or chalkboards on them.

*Show off.* she scolded.

He walked over to the wall and searched but was unable to find a way to open the door.

*Try the desk* she suggested in an amused tone.

Booker walked over to the desk found a switch. Moments later the door slid open.

"Show off." Booker said with mock irritation. Times like this she wished she could give him a smile.

To their surprise the open door didn't reveal a corridor, but a spiral staircase going down. Booker took a step to go down, but hesitated.

*I think we better finish looking around here first.*

"Yeah. And close the other door in case some decides to come in here."

In a few minutes later the outer door was closed and Booker checked the television to make sure there was no activity in the empty bathysphere dock and that the guards had not been alerted to anything. Suchong's desk surrendered only 27 dollars, a bottle of aspirin and several keys on a key chain marked "Spares". Booker then started down the stairs with his pistol drawn.

The stairway went down only one story and soon they found themselves in the empty sphere bay as she had anticipated. Out of sight of the camera was a narrow passage.

"What was all this for?"

*My guess this so Suchong could visit this lab and no one would know he was here. He liked his secrets.*

"Hope this one kept."

The passage was only about 20 feet long and had several small puddles along its length. The door at the other end opened easily to reveal a plain looking office lit only with a single flickering lamp. Before allowing the hidden door to close, Booker located the switch on the desk and made sure it worked. The office door was locked, but one of the keys from Suchong's office opened it. Booker quietly slipped out into a short corridor and closed the door behind him without making any noise. There were two other doors, but Booker ignored them for the moment.

Instead, he went to the end of the corridor and listened for a short time before looking around the corner. The corridor beyond was empty and looked much like the plain corridors above.

*Looks like there isn't anyone around. But we shouldn't be too far away from where Ryan's guards or the Bathysphere Docking Station.*

Booker gently nodded his head. He evidentially was unwilling to even chance whispering to her.

They went back and checked the other two doors. One opened to a small break room with only a couple of tables, chairs and empty lockers. It was plain and lacked even the "decorations" they had seen in the larger one above. The other led to a large pumping station. None of the pumps were running and the recessed floor was covered with water of at least a foot in depth. On the other side of the room was another door labeled "Section 3 Maintenance".

Booker didn't seem to like the water and looked around the room until he spotted a cargo hook.

*Don't want to get your feet wet?* Then she figured it out. *You would leave wet foot prints, wouldn't you?*

"You're learning." he whispered.

'Too bad I'll never make use of it.'

Moments later they were hanging from the cargo hook and then landing in front of the door on the other side of the room. The door opened easily and they walked into a room filled with work benches, partially disassembled machines and abandoned tools.

They looked around for several minutes finding nothing of interest until they encounter a half disassembled machine with "U-Invent" in big letters on it.

*I read an advertisement for these. They allow you to make things if you supply it with the proper materials.*

"What kind of things?"

*Depends on what "formula" the machines has and what you put into it. But I do remember that Fontaine didn't own the company that made them. So why is it down here?*

"Figuring out how it works maybe?"

*Yeah, that makes sense. Can you take look inside. I might learn a little about it.*

Booker quickly obliged, but a look was more than enough to tell her even she would need to make an extensive study of the U-Invent in order to understand it. After that they continued to search the area and on the far workbench she noticed an odd yellow tool with a pistol grip.

*Booker, the table ahead on the right.* He went picked it up and examined to for a moment. *I think that's one of the Hacking Tools I mentioned earlier.*

"Guess we can try it out on that safe and find out for sure."

They checked the lockers along the back wall and got a surprise when the corpse of a woman in coveralls tumbled out of the second one they opened.

Booker muttered "Sorry." as he quickly searched the body finding a slip of paper with the number 2769 on it. He gently pushed the corpse back into the locker and closed the door. In the other lockers they found an inexpensive watch, a wallet with 56 dollars and a bottle of glue.

*Nice to have some extra glue if we need it.*

The last thing to check was a small store room that had been partially converted over to an office. The only thing of interest was an Audio Log.

_Paul Gristman: Trouble Maker_

_November 17, 1958_

_I know White is being a real pain in the ass to you Bethany. If he crosses the line and you have to stop him from causing *real* trouble, I'm giving you permission to use Possession on him. There's a bottle in Secure Storage, Locker 14. You have permission to use it on White only! If I hear you have been using it to get yourself a new boyfriend, there'll be hell to pay. Got it?_

*Possession. The version they use down here is a bit different than the one in Columbia. After it wears off they don't kill themselves. There is an upgrade that causes an effected person to knock themselves out, but that's all. That is if Bethany didn't use it already.*

"Think that was Bethany in the locker over there." Booker informed her sadly.

*I guess, she didn't get the chance then.*If Bethany had been able to use the Possession, she would probably still be alive. Her death was their good fortune.

"Probably not. Just need to find that Secure Storage place now."

Several minutes later they were in the short corridor and Booker again listened for some time before looking around the corner. Nothing seemed to have changed since they looked the first time. Booker slowly walked down the corridor, careful to avoid making noise. About twenty foot down there was another short corridor branching off to the left that had two doors on it. The first was a simple office door labeled "D-AL 101". The other door was at end of the corridor and was reinforced. A plaque stating "Secure Storage # 4" adorned the wall above it. Alongside the door was a number lock.

*This would seem to be the place.*

Booker gestured to the office first and found it was locked. None of the keys from Suchong's office would open it either. Booker made a dismissive sound and went to the Secure Storage door. He entered the number off the slip of paper they found on Bethany's remains and the door slid open.

The room wasn't very large but filled with cubbyholes and lockers of various sizes along the walls and a shelving unit in the middle. All over the room were delicate electronic components, computer parts, small eclectic motors and expansive tools. They quickly located Locker 14 and found the bottle of Possession stored within. Booker looked at a moment and put it on one of shelves and did a quick search of the rest of the lockers. The search only tuned up a stash of six creme-filled cakes.

*Guess somebody really likes those.*

Booker retrieved the bottle of Possession and headed back to the hidden door that led to the Sphere Bay and Suchong's lab above.

They were only halfway down the corridor when they heard voices behind them. Not bothering to look back, Booker rushed the remaining distance as quietly as he could. Just after they turned the corner a flashlight beam illuminated the corridor behind them.

Now they could hear footsteps and make out some of what was being said.

"..is John giving the orders." the first voice asked.

"Donno. I just followin.." a second voice responded.

Booker carefully slipped into the office and closed the door while the first voice complained "..patrol down here. They can't get down here and he knows it. Just showin' off. The Sarge should let him know who's boss."

Just as Booker turned the key to lock the door a light shown under the door.

"You hear that?" the second voice said.

"Hear what?"

"Something, a lock maybe."

The door handle rattled. "Well, this one is locked." the other one said in an irritated voice. "Let's get back. Nothin' going on here."

The light and voices moved away and Booker let out a slow breath.

*That was close. I think we should get back upstairs.*

Booker just nodded and hit the switch that opened the hidden door. 'We really have to figure out a way for him to talk to me without him... talking to me.'

As they ascended the stairs Booker felt it was safe to talk again.

"Closer than I would like. If they hadn't been sloppy, might have caught us."

*But now we know that we can get down there and that it's not far away from where Ryan's people are set up. We can gas them and then surprise anyone still awake from behind.*

"Take a little coordination and careful timing, but should work."

They entered Suchong's lab and Booker headed for the Television monitor to see what Ryan's men were doing. Nothing had changed that they could see. Booker pulled out his watch and looked at the time. Much more had passed than she had expected.

"You know, that paperwork is looking a lot better now."

*You said it.*

It was going to be good to get back to the messages. She felt useful doing the decoding, not like parasite leaching off of Booker's life. That was unfair. She knew she wasn't a parasite and she was positive that Booker didn't feel that way about her either. But it didn't change the way she felt at times.

Booker to the labs door and hit the switch to open it. Then he looked down at the bottle of Possession in his hand and sighed.

"Not going to be able to walk around with this out there."

*You could leave it here for later.*

Booker considered it a moment then shook his head slightly. "I found this place without much trouble. Someone else could too. Better drink it now."

He closed his eyes and drank down the Plasmid. "Well, no light show this time."

*Light show?*

"Yeah, first time I drank this there were all kinds of green lights and things looked funny."

*That almost sounds like the effects of some of the recreational drugs they allow down here. So did you enjoy it the first time?*

"Hell no. Let's go and try out that Hack Tool at that safe."

As they headed back the computer room she wondered a little about the effects Shock Jockey on her. When Booker and Anna were safely back home, she would no longer be needed and she wasn't going to force Booker to live the rest of his life with her looking over his shoulder. Booker wouldn't object, but it wouldn't be right. Shock Jockey may provide a clue on how to remove her when the time came.

Booker walked to the front of the safe in the office area of the computer room and got out the Hack Tool. He looked at it for a moment before figuring it out and then used it on the safe. The tool made a spinning noise for a moment and the door to the safe door cracked opened. Booker opened the safe and glanced at the Hack Tool. A small amount of smoke wafted up from it.

"You're kidding me." he stated to one in particular.

*It broke after one use? Really?*

Booker examined the now broken tool a little more closely. "Think it's supposed to do that. This thing really don't look to well built."

*Well, at least the safe is open and we know the Hack Tools live up to their name.*

Booker tossed the Hack Tool into a trash can to join the cigarettes and turned to look at the contents of the safe. The shifting colors of an Infusion was the first thing they saw. Beside it was a small gold bar and a stack of bills.

Booker reached out and picked up the Infusion.

*Are you sure you want to do that?*

"Yeah. Trust these things more than the Plasmids actually. Considering how many I drank in Columbia, I think that if you first one doesn't kill you, none of them will."

*Wait, you KNEW those could kill you?* 'What was he doing taking such a chance?'

"Not the first time. Lutece only mentioned the "kill me" part after I drank the first one." Booker didn't sound happy it.

*You would have drunk it anyway, right?*

"Probably, but don't like being tricked."

Booker quickly drank the Infusion and emptied out the contents of the safe. They should be able upgrade one of his Plasmids now with a fair amount left over. Booker carefully moved the body of the Jockey behind some shelves so it would be more difficult to find. If people knew the Jockey was dead they would probably swarm the place looking for things of value or ADAM. They left the computer room and walked out into the mall area. There were a few less people about than earlier, but still a fair number.

They walked over to the Circus of Values and Booker bought some milk to go with his dinner. As they walked to the stairway someone called out to them. Booker turned to see the man with the blue cloth tied on his face. The splicer gave waved and gave him a thumbs up sign. Booker waved back. That seemed to please the splicer.

They made it back the pharmacy without any incidents and Booker ate his dinner from Joe's before getting back to decoding the messages. An hour later they were finished and had learned that some sections of Rapture had been closed off to try and try and restrict the movement of Atlas's supporters. Something else they discovered was that Atlas had been holding off attacking Olympus Heights until the right time and it was weakly defended right now. They decided that it might be a good place to enter Rapture and scout around.

They made what plans they could for defeating Ryan's guards and discovered they had several hours of time left before it was time to sleep. They didn't want to go on another "walk", so they did something they never had a chance to do before. Just talk as two normal people. Not about their situation, plans to get up to Rapture, tears or what happened in Columbia. Just simply, talk.

In truth, Booker did a lot of the talking and more than a little of it was about Anna. She didn't really feel she had much to offer, but Booker still managed to get her to talk some. It was incredible in some ways, she knew so much about Booker, but at the same time, she knew almost nothing at all.

Sometime later Elizabeth realized it was starting to get dark for her again.

*Booker, I'm starting to fade again. Can you do me a favor?*

"Certainly."

*If you find a guitar, I would.. like to hear you play... some more.*

"I would be happy to play for you Elizabeth."

*Thank.. you.*

As everything faded away, she knew she was smiling.

End Chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 12

-Booker-

She was asleep now. Never realized how much his playing the guitar in the Graveyard Shift had affected her. Should have known though. He got out his pocket watch and checked the time. Bed time for both of them. It had been good to talk to Elizabeth. In some ways she was the only person that he could talk to, that would understand. He thought it had done Elizabeth good as well. There was something in her voice that had slowly gotten harder as they had fought their way through Columbia. Soldier's Field? Was that when it started? No one else would be able to hear it, but he could. And for once he heard it soften, no much, but a little.

He knew she could never go back to being the girl he had broken out of Monument Island. But maybe he could help Elizabeth bring that girl back a little bit. He knew she deserved more, but it was all he could do right now.

Time for him to get some sleep as well.

…

He woke and checked the time. Over eight hours and Elizabeth was still asleep. Maybe the decoding had taken more out of her than he thought. Was going to have to be more careful in the future not to push her or let her push herself too hard. He could go downstairs and get something for breakfast, but really didn't feel like it. He made a quick meal with the canned food they had found yesterday and decided to get some milk later.

After breakfast he spent a few minutes cleaning up and then looked through the notes and plans they made yesterday. He didn't see any new holes or problems. Unfortunately, didn't see a solution to the problems they already knew about. So much could go wrong and he didn't see many options when it did. Guess they will have to think of something as they went along.

Had plenty of practice doing that.

He brought up the Possession Plasmid and got a feel for it. The Green Fairy that swum around his hand looked the same as it had in Columbia. But it "felt" a little different, incomplete somehow. Maybe that was why the version down here didn't force the person to kill themselves when it wore off. Didn't bother him. Might make for a few less dead bodies if he could knock them out rather than killing them.

He had just extinguished the Plasmid when he heard Elizabeth start to rouse.

*Morning... Booker.*

He could just see her trying to blink the sleep from her eyes as she woke up.

"Mornin' Elizabeth. Been about nine hours."

*That's longer than yesterday.* He could hear the concern in her voice.

"Don't worry about it, was a long day. Today's probably going to be longer."

*What are you thinking of doing?*

"Going after Ryan's people. Longer we wait the more chance something will change."

*Strike while the iron is hot?*

"Strike while we're still alive."

They still had some time before their meeting with Clarice and Martin so they went over the plans and notes again. And got the same results Booker had earlier. Neither of them liked their lack of options, but there was nothing to be done for it.

As they walked downstairs to get some milk he realized how much he missed the Sun and asked Elizabeth about how she managed to deal with it. She told him that she bought the most powerful lamp she could find and would sit under it. Booker hoped that he and Anna would be long gone before they had to do something like that.

Joe's was open and doing a brisk business. Booker made a point of staying some distance away so as to not panic the owner. As Booker slowly drank his milk drank his milk he wondered a moment how they got milk around here or if it was really milk. Finally decided he really didn't want to know.

The Big Daddy stomped his way around the pavilion, but no Little Sister showed up. Must be sleeping in. Elizabeth noticed that the bookstore was still open, so they went over to take a look. They found a splicer with mismatched gold and blue eyes and some kind of mask covering his mouth apparently running the store.

"Hello! How may I help you?" He cheerily asked.

"Happen to have a newspaper?"

"Why certainly! Fresh from the Pneumo!" and pointed to back counter. Booker, careful to watch their backs, went and picked up a paper and returned to the front of the store and paid for it. After that he found a location against a wall to read the paper. To their displeasure the paper didn't contain nearly as much information as they had hoped. And what information it did have was clearly slanted to favor of Ryan.

*Ryan must be censoring the press.*

"Doesn't that go against the "anything goes" rule down here?"

*Certainly does. But you know as well as I do some people a more than willing to find an excuse for most anything if it serves their purpose.*

"Humph, sounds a lot like Comstock. Wait, is Ryan a..."

*No! No. Ryan isn't a version of you. There may always be a Lighthouse, a Man and a City, it's not always the same man, not the same city. You had nothing to do with this place.*

That was a relief. Then he thought a moment. "We didn't have anything to do with Rapture, but Rapture has something to do with us. Ryan didn't kidnap Anna at random."

*This is my fault. If I hadn't come here to kill Comstock, Suchong might never have figured out how to open a tear. You and Anna would be safe in New York City.*

"Ryan made the decision to kidnap Anna. He's responsible, not you."

*I guess.* She didn't sound very sure about it.

"No guess about it. Even if we have the responsibility of fixing this mess, we aren't responsible for it happening in the first place."

*I think it's about time we get to "fixing this mess" as you put it.*

"What?"

*Nearly time for our appointment with Clarice and Martin, isn't it?*

He got out his watch and found it was nearly time for their meeting. "Yeah, it is."

They headed up to the fourth floor and when he got to the damaged barricade, the guards called him "Sir" and told him to go on in. Several of the people he passed thanked him as he neared Clarice's rooms.

*Seems that a few people think you're a bit of a hero.*

He had to speak in a low voice now. "Both know I'm not."

He knocked on the door to Clarice's meeting room and was told to enter a moment later. Martin and Clarice were by the meeting table and clearly had been talking. Most of the larger crystals on her had been melted off or at least greatly reduced in size.

"A pleasure to see you again Mr. DeWitt." The splicer greeted him. Martin just nodded and gave him a small if somewhat worried smile.

*She seems a little calmer.* Elizabeth didn't sound if she believed it though.

"Good to see you're feeling better."

"I am." the splicer said. The look on Martin's face behind her argued against that claim. "So let us hear you plan."

"The basics. First is subduing Ryan's guards. Next is getting some people into the part of the Fontaine store up by Rapture and last is getting spheres from that store and moving as many people as we can to Rapture."

"I had wondered why you mentioned Bathyspheres Deluxe before. We had thought other building had been destroyed. It appears that was not the case."

"Somebody managed to move it. According to Atlas's people the building is intact and Ryan is doing something inside it. That means there may be more bathyspheres there than we first expected."

"And how do you propose to "subdue" the guards?" The splicer seemed rather doubtful about him doing that now.

"I estimate there to be between nine and twelve guards. A gas bomb in the elevator should get most of them. I found another way down yesterday that the guards don't know about and we should be able to mop up with little or no bloodshed."

"And why are you concerned about bloodshed." It was more a demand than a question. Before Booker could answer she held up her left hand to stop him before quickly dropping it. "No, that was unfair and improper on my part. I apologize. Please continue."

*She must be holding on by her fingernails. Did you see how her hand was shaking?*

"There's two sphere's downstairs, providing both work, one will go up the Fontaine store, take control and the other sphere can come up with more people to act as drivers and start moving people."

Martin broke in "How do you know they have two bathyspheres? And how many guards there are?"

"Found a lab that Suchong had here. He had cameras set up to watch some areas."

"That miserable little man had a laboratory here? Why have we not heard of this before?" The splicer seemed more surprised than angry.

"It was hidden, though not well. That Jockey down there would have made finding it rather difficult."

*Rather hard to look for anything with electricity being shot at you.*

"I am surprised that you avoided a confrontation with him."

"Didn't. He's... not a problem anymore."

Their expressions betrayed their surprise. It was Martin who spoke first. "How?"

"Let's just say I have had some experience fighting people like him." It came out a little harsher than he had intended and Clarice decided to change the subject.

"And what are my people to do when they get to Rapture?"

"Find someplace safe and hide. With luck Ryan and Atlas will destroy each other. Even if one of them wins, things are going to be such a mess they shouldn't think to go looking for you. Olympus Heights seems to be fairly quiet, but that can change. Not much, but it's all I have."

He pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to Martin. "This is a list of things we are going to need. And did you find the operator for the wireless?"

"Yeah, we found him. Not sure why you want him." Martin said as he looked over the list.

"Going to tell Atlas that Marks managed to take over down here. See if we can get him to give us some information. Would like to do this as soon as possible. Today even."

The other two people looked surprised. "Is that wise?" the splicer asked.

He gave a short laugh. "No, not wise at all. But the longer we wait, the worse our chances."

Marin had been looking over the list. "I'll start looking. I think we have everything."

As Booker turned to follow Martin out Clarice asked him to stay a moment. 'What could she want?'

*Maybe she's going to make a pass at you Booker.* Elizabeth teased.

The splicer waited a short time before continuing. "I, would like to make a request of you Mr. DeWitt."

"Don't hurt to ask." Something about the way she was acting was different. Worried?

"I am afraid that if you manage to escape this place that Martin will refuse to leave. If Martin were to stay, he would die. Possibly by my hand. When you escape you must make Martin leaves with you, even if you must use force. He cannot stay here. Please." The expression on the woman's face was heart breaking.

"I can try to talk to him, but if I try to.." An idea struck him just as Elizabeth started speaking.

*The crossbow bolt we found. You can knock him out and not worry about causing serious injury.*

He pulled out the bolt and showed it to Clarice. "Have an idea." The expression on her face changed to puzzlement. "Tranquilizer Bolt for a small crossbow. Can do it by hand if I have to. Hope it doesn't come to that."

"Thank you Mr. DeWitt. Hard to believe that Rapture could..." The expression on the woman's face changed from one of a smile to that of surprise and realization.

*I think she just figured it out Booker.*

"You are not from Rapture are you Mr. DeWitt? How did you get here? Can you get back out? Can you summon assistance?" It hurt to see the hope on her face and know that he was going to have to destroy it.

*Sometimes, I hate being right.*

"Didn't lie earlier. It was a one way trip, no way back, no help. Can't really tell you more."

*Don't know if she would believe you if you did tell her.*

"But how did your daughter get here?" Clarice asked, grasping at any kind of hope.

"Ryan took her. If anyone is to leave Rapture, it would be after Ryan is gone."

"Then we should help Atlas and his rebels?" She seemed skeptical of doing that.

"No. Atlas is worse than Ryan. Just better at hiding it." He couldn't quite keep all the anger out of his voice.

"So hiding is all my people will be able to do once they escape here. At least it is a chance." Clarice said with a mixture of sadness and hope.

"Sometimes that's all life gives you. You have to make the most of it."

"Wisdom from someone as young as you is unusual."

"Humph. If I was wise, I wouldn't have made so many mistakes or hurt some many people. I better catch up to Martin. He's probably wondering where I am by now."

"Thank you for your help Mr. DeWitt."

"Best to wait until your people are safe before you thank me. A lot of things can go wrong. And please don't tell anyone I'm not from round here. Would just make things harder."

"I will not speak of it to anyone, including Martin."

"Thank you." He told her and started for the door.

*That could have gone a lot worse that it did. We are going to have to be more careful in the future. And get you some new clothes.* He could just imagine the smirk on her face as she said that.

He left Clarice's rooms and went looking for Martin.

*That the first time you have ever been called wise?*

"No more wise than a hero."

They found Martin a couple minutes later. He motioned them to come over. "I found the explosives, fuses and we do have one person that worked at Bathyspheres Deluxe as a mechanic."

"Good."

"So, what did Clarice want?" Martin tried to ask casually, but failed.

"She wanted me to talk to you about making sure you leave. She wants you to be safe."

Martin muttered something darkly.

"I know you don't want to leave her, but who do you think will lead these people once there out of here? They need you for that. Clarice needs to know you're out of this place, that you're safe. You don't want to take that away from her, do you? "

"I'll...think about it."

"Please do. While you're thinking, can I see the wireless operator?"

"Uh, yeah yeah. He's down that hall third door down. Got 'em separate from the others."

"Thanks. Plan to take him down to the wireless room, that ok?"

"Yeah, sure." Martin seemed lost in thought.

He headed towards the room that Martin said the operator was in.

*So, do you think that he's trying to figure out a way to make sure he stays or to get Clarice to leave?*

"Probably both." He said under his breath.

*I would hate to see what would happen if she got into a sphere. It would ice up and sink.*

There were two of Clarice's people in the corridor where Marks people were being held, both of them armed with shotguns. They smiled and relaxed a little when they saw him. He asked where the wireless operator was and one of the acting guards led him to the room and unlocked the door to let him in. He had to tell the guard to lock the door after he entered the room.

Standing inside the room was a skinny young man, maybe twenty years old, if that. He was putting on a brave face, but it was obvious that he was scared, slightly hunched over, defensive, expecting to be hurt, not big on eye contact. How could he use that? Clothes in poor shape. A torn seam, old bruises. Should be enough.

-Elizabeth-

The room the operator was in was a typical office, if a smaller one. A couple of desks, some chairs and a table off to one side. The man himself was about 19 or 20 years old, dressed in battered cloths that didn't seem to quite fit. His jaw was bruised, but it looked three or four days old. Holding his left hand in his right, like he was trying to hide or protect it. His eyes darted around the room as if trying to avoid looking at Booker. They were about the same age, but he seemed so young to her. He was scared and doing a poor job of trying to hide it. She felt a little sorry of him.

What was Booker going to do? She knew he wasn't going to hurt him, but she really couldn't figure out what he intended.

What Booker did surprised her. He cleaned off one of the desks and placed a chair about six feet in front of it. Then he sat on the edge of the desk and offered the young man the seat in a friendly tone. Uncertainly, the man sat down.

"Name's Booker, Booker DeWitt. What's yours?"

"William." the man replied cautiously.

"Well William, these people here could use some help and you seem to be someone that could supply that."

"I'm not going to betray Atlas!" William nearly yelled.

"How much do you really know about Atlas, William?"

Booker turned the question back on William instead of trying to argue. Interesting.

William was totally caught off guard by the question. "What do you mean?"

"How much do you know about Atlas? Have you ever met him, do you know where he came from, did anyone hear of him a couple of years ago?"

*Booker, you're not going to tell him that Fontaine is really Atlas?" Booker shook his head slightly to say "no".

"Um, he's Irish, he has a family and is one of us, one of the working people Ryan and his kind lord over!"

In a pitch perfect Irish accent Booker asked William "Ye quite sure that this Mr. Atlas is actually Irish, now? Seems ter me that thare be a bit more to bein' Irish than jist an accent."

*Booker, how? Oh, New York has a large number of Irish immigrants, doesn't it?*

William just stared at Booker as he continued in his normal voice. "Atlas may say he is one of the working people, what was his job? Where did he work? Where's his family that he talks about?"

"I don't care! He's fighting Ryan, isn't that enough?"

"How did you get that bruise on your jaw?"

"Well, uh.. None of your business!"

Booker is after something, but what?

"Let me take a guess on how you got that bruise on your face and wrist. Marks did that to you. Or maybe it was Louie."

William looked at Booker for a moment and quickly looked away.

"You don't have to worry about Marks or Louie anymore." Booker said softly.

"You're the one that killed Louie, aren't you?"

"Unfortunately. Tried to kill me, just for saying 'no' to him. Does that sound right to you? What happened to you when you said something Marks didn't like?"

William looked at the floor but didn't respond.

Booker got up and slowly started to walk around the room. "How did Marks get to be Atlas's man down here? Atlas appointed him, didn't he?"

William mumbled something but kept look at his feet.

"If Atlas is so big at helping the working man, why would he have a thug like Marks running things down here?"

"It's the only way to fight Ryan! That Ice Bitch! She's one of Ryan's friends!"

"If she was one of Ryan's friends, what is she doing down here and not up in Rapture?"

"Uh, well she deserves it!"

"Just like you deserved to get slugged in the jaw, right?"

William looked like he had been slapped.

"You see William, Marks wanted to destroy Clarice and her people because she said "no" to him. They didn't want to join him and Atlas. Not because they support Ryan."

"But Marks said..."

"Look how Marks and Atlas act, not at what they say. They hurt and kill anyone that doesn't do what they want. When it comes right down to it, what's the difference between them and Ryan?"

Williams was looking at Booker now as he walked around the room. His face was filled with uncertainty.

"When Marks attacked yesterday, a lot of innocent people got hurt. Other's died. Atlas wanted it and you helped it happen."

William's expression changed to shame and he looked away from Booker.

"So, what are you going to do about it? You going to do the right thing and help these people?"

"What, what do you want me to do?"

"Just ask Atlas for some information on the radio."

"Information? What kind of information?" Williams asked in a worried tone. 'He still doesn't want to do anything that might hurt Atlas.'

"Nothing that will hurt Atlas." She could almost hear Booker think 'Unfortunately'. "Just want to know if Ryan has..." *Torpedoes.* "torpedoes or anything else that can sink bathysphere. And what areas are quite right now."

"You're planning to escape? Can I go?" William's face lit up. 'Amazing how the idea of escaping changes someone's attitude. I'm dead, but it's *still* better than being trapped in that tower.'

"Not my decision if you go along or not. But helping out might convince someone to take you along."

"What do you want me to send?"

Booker pulled out a sheet of paper and handed it to William. "Uh, this is wrong."

"What's wrong with it?" Booker asked, pretending to be more confused than he actually was.

"When Marks sends a message he calls Atlas "Boss" and doesn't talk like this."

*Great, Marks must have been of Fontaine's cronies that knew the truth.*

"Do you think you can rewrite it so that it sounds like Marks?" Booker asked as he handed the younger man a pen.

"Yeah, sure!" William said with a smile.

A few minutes later William was finished and he gave it to Booker to look over. "Still needs to be encoded. Marks kept the code book with him."

"Guess I'll have to go find it then." He went up to the door and knocked to be let out. He left the room then asked the guard if anyone had searched Marks's body. The guard looked at him a moment and Booker explained he should have had a code book on him. The guard directed him down the makeshift "freezer" they had set up.

"Nice they just aren't leaving the dead bodies around." Booker muttered.

*At least we won't have to try searching a day old dead body.*

"Frozen bodies can be just as bad in some ways. After... what happened at Wounded Knee, we tried to bury the dead. And the blizzard hit..." Booker's voice was grim and lost in the past.

*I'm sorry, I didn't know.* 'It's been twenty five years for him now. But for some part of him it is always as it had just happened.'

Booker shook himself before responding. "Nothing to be sorry for. Not many know what really happened or care. Comstock sure as hell never told the truth about it. By now, most probably never even heard of it."

The "freezer" turned out to be a room that Clarice had covered in dry ice. The bodies were placed around the floor of the room and it took Booker several minutes to find Marks. He quickly searched the body finding the code book, a set of keys and an Audio Diary. Booker quickly left the room to warm up. She warned Booker not to try and play the Diary while it was so cold. She had Booker read thought the code book quickly to make sure of its contents and returned to the room William was being kept in and gave him the code book

A short time later William was finished coding the message and Booker knocked on the door to be let out again. Booker explained what he was doing and that Martin had OK'd it already. The headed down the main stairs the radio room. None of Clarice's people did anything more than look at the two of them.

From the various "humphs" Booker made, he was not impressed by security measures they took. She couldn't help but agree. These people were going to need to be much more careful when they got back to Rapture.

When they arrived they found a message that had been arrived a few hours before. Atlas wanted to know what was taking so long. Fortunately, the message they planned to send didn't need to be changed. After ending the message William said it would probably be a couple hours before there was a response so Booker escorted him back up to his room. When he got there he made it very clear to the guards that William was not to put in with the other prisoners and went to talk to Martin.

They found Martin putting on a coat to go visit Clarice. Booker explained what had occurred with William and that the message had been sent.

"Yeah, good." was all that he said.

"Can I pick up the supplies I asked for? Still got work to do."

"Left them at the entrance. In a box. Someone can get it for you."

*I have a feeling that we don't want to be around when Martin and Clarice "talk".*

"Martin, some advice from someone who's made a lot of mistakes. Don't do or say anything you can't take back."

Martin just looked at them for a several moments and relaxed a little. "Thanks, I'll try."

Booker told Martin he would be back after noon as turned to leave.

*I hope they can talk it out.*

"Hope so. Going to plan on using that Tranquilizer bolt on him though."

*We can worry about that later.*

"Yeah, got our own worries."

*Time to make a bomb.*

End Chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 13

–Elizabeth–

When they got to the main stairs there was a moderately sized box waiting for them. The single person on guard duty came up, shook Booker's hand and identified himself as Sergio. Sergio said if Booker ever needed a favor come to him first, that he owed Booker his life. Elizabeth thought it took a moment for Booker to realize it was the man whose life he had saved yesterday by stopping him from going around the corner.

*Seems you have a fan Booker.*

Booker thanked Sergio and examined the box. Inside were two shortwave radios, two feet of something that looked like dark string, several pieces of flat metal and a coffee tin. Booker carefully picked up the can to test the weight. Then he gingerly removed the top and looked inside. It contained eight, maybe nine tablespoons of a black powder.

"Looks like they went with using gunpowder. Saves the trouble of opening shotgun shells."

He carefully replaced the top and they headed down the stairs to the pharmacy. Outside the door there was a box that looked much like the one full of food that Joe had given them the day before. Booker looked around, but they didn't see anyone.

Booker sighed and walked over to the box and examined it carefully before opening it. "Doesn't smell bad." A piece of paper inside the box had "On the house!" scrawled it.

Booker sighed "Doesn't want me down there, does he?"

*First time being kicked out a restaurant for bad behavior?*

"Unfortunately not. How long will it take to make up your bombs?"

*Should take about a half hour to mix things up. And you're going to have to tell me how you got kicked out of a restaurant.* This should be interesting.

"Which time?" Booker dead panned.

*You've gotten kicked out more than once?* 'Why am I not that surprised to hear that.'

"Only three times. Four, if you count the time with Anna a few months ago."

*And WHAT did you do to get tossed out of a restaurant with Anna?*

"Was all the waiter's fault, not Anna's. And there was NO reason to call the fire department." Booker proclaimed in a dead serious tone.

*Forget I asked.* she said quickly. It was embarrassing enough to hear just that much. *How long will it take for you to get the explosive ready?*

"About a half hour, maybe longer."

*That long?*

"Yeah, gotta be careful with the powder, see how fast the fuse burns and whatnot."

*We better get to work then.*

It took longer than either of them had expected and it was nearly two hours later that they finished. They had two gas bombs, but only enough explosives for one of them. The bomb intended for the guards below them was strange looking to say the least. A spice container with a small bottle (with a fuse) taped to it and a piece of metal bent halfway around it. But it should work.

By the end of process she was feeling irritated and antsy. She wanted to go do something, but what? More important, why? She stepped on the feelings hard, but she suspected Booker noticed something though he didn't say anything.

"Let's take a little walk."

*Where to?*

"Thinking of looking at a new suit."

*Going to talk to Witherspoon you mean.*

"Time to stir the pot a little."

…

They headed downstairs but didn't directly go to Rafael's. She wanted to see what was in a couple of the abandoned stores they hadn't explored earlier. They only found a few dollars, a mostly empty bottle of EVE and an Audio Diary.

_William Pickering: Ready to Run_

_September 18, 1958_

_Fontaine's dead and things are in a real uproar. No one is sure what's going to happen. Better be ready to make a break for it if the opportunity comes my way. Put some of my saving's in the safe so I can grab them quickly. Reset the combination to 42, 8, 26. _

"Humpf. Would have been nice to find *that* before I had to use a Hack Tool on that safe." Booker said as they walked towards Rafael's.

*Not to mention the Infusion would have been helpful with the Jockey.*

People were milling about as usual. A pair of splicers stood and laughed at each other. She thought they were the same ones she and Booker had seen fighting before. Another was standing in front of a broken jukebox and acted as if he were directing the unheard music from it.

They walked into Rafael's and was met by an rather short elderly man with glasses dressed in a white shirt with rolled up sleeves, a tape measure in his hand and a smile on his face. "Well, well. This is going a challenge." he announced in a soft Italian accent.

The man walked around Booker going "hmm", "humph" along with a "tisk" or two.

*Seems someone else shares my opinion of you fashion sense.*

Booker tried to get his attention "Excuse me, I..."

"Quite! Where did you get such pants? That shirt? Humph! The vest is just as bad. And you call that a tie? You look like something from my grandfather's day!"

*It probably is.*

"Hey, I'm just trying.."

The man had his tape measure out and was using it. "Stop moving!"

*Yeah, Booker, stop moving.* 'This will probably be my only chance to get him into some different clothes.'

Booker made soft growling sound in the back of his throat to let her know he was not happy with this turn of events. That only made it more difficult for her not to laugh.

"So nice to have a real man in here rather that tub of lard." the tailor muttered to himself. "Got the perfect suit for you. Little extra space to make room for that," he tapped the Booker's pistol holster "but no problem. My wife will appreciate the challenge."

Booker glanced around the room trying to ignore the tailor as he worked. As he did a flash of light blue caught her eye back behind a rack of jackets.

*Booker, back to the left. I thought I saw, yes! A Gear!*

"Excuse me" Booker tried to lift his arm to point only to have it grabbed and pushed back to its original position.

"I said, Stay Still." It was getting really difficult not to laugh now.

Booker used his other arm to point. "Is that a Gear back there?"

"Humm, what? Ah that, some crazy thing that is supposed to give someone an electric shock if they hit you. Like that could ever really happen. They call it "Shock Therapy", I call it stupid."

*Must be Rapture's version of "Shock Jacket. I didn't expect to see a Gear in this part of the Fontaine's.*

"How much for that? If it's for sale that is."

The man straightened up and rubbed his chin in thought. "You think those things really work? Well, don't think Mr. Patrician is going to be coming to get now and he didn't pay for it. Say, 360 along with the suit. Package deal. You buy both that and the suit, or nothing."

Booker must have given the man a look because he took a small step back. "How about 300?"

"340" the tailor countered.

"325" Booker returned.

The tailor paused a moment "Ok, 325 it is. Should have this done in about two hours."

*He must work fast.*

"Uh, actually I came here to see if there were any messages left by Witherspoon for me. Name's DeWitt."

"If you're a friend of his I'm going to charge you more." he glared Booker.

"Business only and only because I have to."

"Lota people do business with him because they have to." the tailor complained softly. The man walked behind the counter and returned a few moments later with an envelope with his name on it.

Booker opened the envelope and read the message inside.

_Dear Mr. DeWitt, _

_I have obtained reliable information on the subject you inquired about. Unfortunately, I shall not be able to leave my office for the rest of the today. I apologize for the imposition of having to come to my humble place of business. It may be reached by going up stairway "C" to the second floor. You shall have no trouble locating it once you arrive. Again, I must apologize for the inconvenience. _

_Sincerely, _

_Herbert Witherspoon, Esquire_

After reading it Booker made a small "humf" noise and told the tailor he would be back in two to three hours as he left the shop. Then they started walking towards stairway "C".

*Think it's a trap?*

"Could be, but doubt it. Probably wants to feel safe when he talks to me." Still Booker double checked his weapons before he entered the stairwell. She noticed that this stairwell was larger and more ornate than the others and there was even a small elevator off to one side.

"So how many different Gear's do they have here?" he asked as they started climbing the stairs.

*Not many. They were new when Ryan sank the store and no one else sold them. They didn't seem as powerful as the ones Fink made.*

"Don't have to worry about them driving me crazy or killing me though."

*That's very much a point in their favor.*

They came to top of the stairs and as Witherspoon said in his message, it was easy to find his place of business. The stairway ended at a set of heavy oak doors with "Witherspoon Bank &amp; Trust Inc." emblazoned on them. They pushed through the doors and into a large ornate lobby done up in a neo classical style. There were desks, chairs and booths all over. Behind a banister on the right side was a large armored vault door. On the ceiling two security cameras watched them, but there were no people. Something about it seemed familiar and then it hit her.

*This place reminds me of the Bank of the Prophet.*

Booker spoke softly. "A lot of the big banks are like this."

*Showing off how rich they are.*

"Yeah, does have a practical side though. A rich bank could help make you rich. What bothers me.."

*is what this bank is doing here. Witherspoon must have been in good with Fontaine. Which makes him less trustworthy that we thought, if that's possible.*

They walked around the bank lobby for a few moments and she started to notice disguised panels in the floor.

*Booker, I think this place has automated defenses in place. I saw three panels in the floor that look the right size for turrets. Who knows what else Witherspoon has hidden around here.*

"Least there's no other people around."

Just then Witherspoon's voice came out over a hidden speaker. "I Am Sorry to keep you waiting kind Sir. My assistant will be along shortly to escort you to my office. I Do apologize for the inconvenience."

*You were saying?*

Before Booker could respond someone came through a large set of double doors near the vault door. It was a mousey woman with minor ADAM scars on her face and hands that she had tried to cover up with makeup. She had a sad beaten down look about her.

Witherspoon's assistant came up to them and asked Booker to follow her. She led them down a corridor and she was surprised to see that five or six people seemed to be working in the offices they passed. At the end of corridor was a set of large doors that the woman opened and announced "Mr. Witherspoon, your appointment is here."

They stepped into an oversized garishly ornate office. At the other end on a raised platform was a heavy wooden desk with Witherspoon seated behind it an overstuffed leather chair. Two panels in the floor on either side of the desk promised the presence of turrets. The information broker stood up and greeted Booker.

"Welcome, welcome Mr. DeWitt! Again, I must apologies for the inconvenience. And I am afraid I must ask another indulgence of you."

*Here it comes.*

"It seems that Mr. Sullivan is rather interested in you good sir. Interested enough that I believe I may be able to negotiate a release from this... unfortunate situation I have found myself in. Since it may mean a slight delay in your return to Rapture, I am more than willing to compensate you most generously for any inconvenience on your part sir."

"Sorry, but my business down here is done and have important matters to attend to elsewhere."

A phantom of desperation crossed Witherspoon's face. "Sir, I beg you to reconsider. I will be MOST generous with..."

"My business cannot wait Mr. Witherspoon." Booker put a small amount of bite into his voice to try to warn the information broker off. "You said you had information on the man pretending to be me. What is the information and the cost?"

The broker's right hand was slowly moving to under his desk, certainly towards a button that would summon a bodyguard or activate the two turrets concealed in the floor. "Please, sir. I hope you will..."

"Before you do anything…impulsive. If you kill me, how do you think Sullivan would take it? Doubt he would be very happy about it. Might even send some people down here to show how unhappy he was. Certainly you would never get out of there."

Uncertainly clouded the brokers face.

"Course that's if you managed to kill me, which you won't. You deal in money, information, goods. I deal in blood. Rather not spill any, but that's up to you." The tone of Booker's voice was strangely matter of fact. He wasn't trying to scare Witherspoon, but make him see that violence was losing proposition.

Witherspoon's face broke into a wide smile. "Well played Sir, well played. You are a most capable man my good Mr. DeWitt! Now on to the subject of the man you are looking for. My information comes from a reputable source, but was quite difficult to acquire."

*I bet he's going to try and gouge us on the price.*

Witherspoon continued "Given the resources I had to use, the price for this information will be rather high."

"And what is the nature of this information? Don't want something I could get from" *the Rapture Directory* "the Rapture Directory."

"Oh, I assure you sir, this information is quite extensive, is of high quality and contains many particulars."

"And what is the fee for this information?" Booker asked cautiously.

"To the point sir! I like that. The cost will be 400 dollars. A high price, but worth every penny I assure you."

*I wouldn't take his "assurance" that the sky was blue.*

"If you are unable to afford this rate, I believe there are some...tasks that you could be Most helpful with that could be completed in lieu of payment." Witherspoon had a larger smile on his face and she didn't like it one bit.

"380 and we have a deal." Booker said without hesitation.

Witherspoon's smile shrank for an instant then returned to its former size. "Very good Sir. I like a decisive man." The broker pushed a button on top of his desk. "Miss Fournier, please make available to Mr. DeWitt the files in 36B. Payment is Three Hundred and Eighty dollars."

"Yes, Mr. Wittherspoon." came a French accented voice from somewhere on the desk.

*That's only going to leave us barely enough for a Plasmid upgrade. Hope this was worth it, Booker.*

He turned back to Booker. "A pleasure to do business with you, Sir. I hope that you will be able to make use my services in the future. I wish you a good day Sir." The pleased expression on his face irritated her, but she could muster enough ambition to comment on it.

"I will certainly consider it Mr. Witherspoon." Booker politely said as he turned to leave. Before he reached the doors they opened to reveal the Witherspoon's assistant. She closed the door behind asked "Could you follow me please, Mr. DeWitt."

As they followed the assistant, she noticed that it was starting to get dark again. *Booker, I'm fading again. Try not to…get any trouble… while…*

And everything was gone.

-Booker—

That late already? Or did she just start her nap early? He glanced at his watch. No, she was early. The assistant led him into a room with a large reinforced teller booth and several cameras watching him. The woman in the booth had a packet beside her on the counter and looked at him without much interest as she asked for payment.

After he handed her the money she handed Booker the packet, dully thanked him for his purchase and turned away to start typing.

'Awards for friendliness these people will not get.'

He left the bank paying careful attention to panels a turret could pop out from. Despite what he said to Witherspoon, he wasn't sure that the mechanical defenses wouldn't "accidentally" be activated to try and trap him.

To his mild surprise nothing happened and he exited to the promenade's main floor without incident. He decided to head up to the pharmacy for an early lunch. Thinking about it, it might be a good thing that he was reading the information on Comstock by himself. She had already punished herself enough and he didn't want to bring it all back up again. He paused to buy some milk at the Circus machine and climbed the stairs.

While he was eating, he read through the file. Comstock really had been trying to be "Booker DeWitt". Drinking and gambling seemed to have taken most of his time. He also seemed to have gotten in more than a few drunken fights. The only reason things hadn't gone very badly for Comstock was that Sullivan, the head of Rapture Security and several officers where friends of his. The irony of all was not lost on him. Comstock ran away from being the leader of Columbia to try and become *him*. A worthless drunk that would sell his own daughter to pay off his gambling debts.

A man he was still deeply ashamed that he had ever been.

He stopped and looked closely at the files themselves, not what was in them. They were new, freshly typed. The phrasing in some places was very official sounding. Like a military or police report. Then it clicked for him.

'Rapture Security had been watching Comstock.'

That would certainly explain why so many cops where his friends. What better way to keep tabs on him? Nothing hinted that there was a connection to Columbia. No surprise. That beard Comstock wore made a surprising difference in how he looked. Somebody must have stumbled on the fact that Comstock was not a "native" of Rapture somehow and decided to keep an eye on him.

Had a lot of casual friends other than cops, but most of them seemed to have been drinking buddies and not much more. Rather "well known" in his neighborhood on Market Street, wherever that was. Had few close friends and no romantic interests. Closest personal contact was an orphan named Sally who was kidnaped and killed by "parties unknown". Near the end was a summary of Comstock's recent activities. "Hired on December 31st by Elizabeth Comstock."

He had to reread that several times. "Elizabeth Comstock"? Why call Elizabeth a Comstock? Elizabeth would never call herself Comstock. Only someone who knew Elizabeth was from Columbia would do that.

They had been watching Elizabeth as well as Comstock and knew she was from Columbia.

He didn't like this at all. If they knew that much about tears, they might well figure how he got here and connect him to Anna. That could make him finding her that much more difficult. Damn it!

It had been a mistake on his part to be asking about Anna.

Let's see what else it has to say about Comstock's last trip. Visited a number of stores and ended in "Cohen's Club". Next he was seen in Fontaine's Department Store where he parted company with Elizabeth Comstock and returned to Rapture. Since then he was involved in several battles with Atlas's rebels for various clients. It was a fairly convincing fake. If he didn't know that Comstock was long dead, might be inclined to believe it.

The last pages of the report consisted of photographs of Comstock. Quality of the pictures certainly had improved in the past 50 years, one was even in color. Comstock looked old even without his beard and it wasn't just the white hair. He never thought he would feel pity for a Comstock, but he did feel some for this one. Some the worst of both himself and Comstock in one man.

Still hated the bastard.

One of the pictures showed the interior of Comstock's office up in Rapture. It did look a lot like his old office in the Bowery. Scarily so. He closed the file and sat back.

He still owned that office. Didn't use it, but made sure it was kept up. Never quite sure why. Anna had been safe and there was no Comstock. It should have been over, should have just been able to live their lives. But still something managed to drag them both into another city and into another war. Punishment for what he did at Wounded Knee? Anna shouldn't have to pay for what he did and Elizabeth suffered far more than her share already.

It seemed the universe wasn't going to let them alone. Would it ever?

*Hello Booker. I miss anything?* Elizabeth broke in.

"No, nothing important happened."

*Something the matter?* She sounded a little concerned. Must have picked up on a bit of his mood.

"Sorry, just thinking. Witherspoon's information came from Ryan's people."

*Big surprise there.*

"Said Comstock was still alive of course."

*Did it say that was some great hero or something?*

"No, sounded a lot like me... before. Ryan's people had been watching him. Watching you too. You're called Elizabeth Comstock in that." he gestured dismissively towards the file.

*They Called Me WHAT! Those...that explains it.*

"Explains what?"

*When Ryan tried to hire me, he called me "Miss Comstock". I really didn't have time to think about it. Said I was "special" and that we could do business together. Pht! Like I would ever work for Him.*

He could just imagine her crossing her arms and turning away with a disdainful expression on her face. Best to change the subject. "Think that diary from Marks has defrosted yet?"

*Yes, it should be safe to play it now.*

_Peter Marks: Wimps_

_December 3, 1958_

_The Boss told me to get these rubes ready to fight. Never tells me how. These people got no spine, weak. Have to beat the tough into them. Worst one is that William kid, but he's good with electronics and radios. Still need him. But when we get outta here, I ain't going to need him no more. I'm going to enjoy do'in him._

*You know Booker, with a little work you could probably sound like Marks.*

"Never tried to pretend to be someone else much."

*Really? I would have thought that disguises would be normal in your line of work.*

"Sometimes. But I would be a workman or something. Someone people would ignore."

*What kind of jobs did you pretend to do?* She seemed genuinely curious about this.

"Bricklayer, delivery man, mechanic, horse trainer and the like."

*Comfortable in a variety of roles.* Elizabeth said very softly.

"What?"

*Sorry Booker. Nothing important.*

"You know, Ryan was right about one thing."

*Oh? And what was that?* she sounded more than a little skeptical.

"That you're special Elizabeth. Now, I think we have a jail to break out of."

End Chapter 13


	14. Chapter 14

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 14

-Booker-

The first thing to be done was to check the wireless to see if a message from Atlas had arrived. As they walked up to the third floor Elizabeth asked *How did you know what to say to William?*

"In what way?"

*To get him to change his mind, to help Clarice's people.*

"A lot of little things actually. Marks and Louie looked like Five Pointers and..."

*Five Pointers? I have no idea what means.*

"Sorry. Remember when I said that there were places down below that were like Finkton? Five Points was one of them. Worse even. The place was run by huge group called the Five Points Gang. They had their hands in everything. Gambling, robbery, murder, prostitution, smuggling, you name it."

*Sounds like you know a lot about them.*

"Had a few run-ins with 'em last time around. Nasty business. Back to William. Hearing how Marks worked, I figured that he would have bullied William. People like that enjoy hurting people that can't fight back. And the bruises backed that up."

*Not to the best way to build loyalty.*

"For a gang, beating up people works. A revolutionary army? Not so much. Figured that he was a half decent kid all fired up by Atlas's propaganda."

*And the propaganda didn't match what he saw.*

"No it didn't. Didn't really tell William anything he didn't already think. Just made him confront it and gave him a chance to do something about it."

*A chance to redeem himself?*

"Don't know about that. Chance to do the right thing at least."

By that time they had reached the wireless room. The printer on the wireless had a long strip of paper hanging out of it. Booker ripped it off and looked at it.

"Shouldn't take too long." He said as he found a blank piece of paper.

*Not going to have William do it?*

"Rather know what it says before we give it to him."

*A test then.*

He started converting the dots and dashes into letters and numbers.

*So Booker, where did you learn Morse Code?*

"In the Army. Also learned Land Navigation, how to fight and… other things."

*And did you learn anything from Slate?*

"Yeah, some of the wrong things."

*Oh.* Sounded sorry that she asked.

"Don't worry about it. Been awhile since I thought about Slate. Done. Your turn Elizabeth."

*Ok, let's see. Atlas congratulated Marks and oh, this is good. He wants Marks to land in Olympus Heights and "kill anyone they could and mess the place up", except for "the one".*

"One place?"

*I think Fontaine had his penthouse in the Heights. Probably doesn't want it damaged.*

"What's so special about Olympus Heights anyway?"

*It's where many of the richest people in Rapture have their homes. Cohen has an apartment there. Suchong and Tenenbaum did as well.* *Booker, what's a "squeeze play"?*

"Um, baseball term. Why do you want to know?"

*Those are the last two words in the message followed by some numbers.*

"Atlas is going to mount a major attack on Olympus Heights. And is planning to use Marks to do it."

*How?*

"He wants Marks to land inside this Olympus Heights place and start destroying it as a distraction. Ryan will have to pull people off line to deal with them. When the defenses are weakened, Atlas attacks."

*What would happen to Marks's people?*

"Guess most of them would be killed."

*The numbers at the end look like could be a frequency for a shortwave. A way for Marks to talk to Atlas when he gets back to Rapture.*

"Anything else?"

*No. I wonder how William will react to this?* She sounded a little sad, breaking someone's illusions wasn't a pleasant thing to do. He had been responsible for breaking more than a few of hers along the way. Part of him wondered why she didn't hate him for it.

"Only one way to find out."

They left the wireless rom and climbed up the stairs to the next floor. The guards let him see William without any problem.

When they walked in William was seated at one of the desks reading a book. He looked up with a startled expression on his face then he calmed down when he saw who it was.

"Message for you to decode."

"That it?"

They walked over and gave him the sheet of paper. William tossed the book aside and grabbed the paper to decode the message.

As William worked the expression on his face went from happy to surprised. He took a few minutes and rechecked his decoding. By the time he was done he looked disappointed and angry.

"What's the matter?" he asked William.

William just handed him the decoded message and didn't say anything.

He read through it and William asked "Why kill everyone? I know all the exploiters are up there, but families are too. Anna Culpepper lives up there." *Culpepper's a woman on the Council that opposed Ryan.* "I don't understand why Atlas wants us to..."

"Sorry you had to find out the hard way. Be glad you did before you have too much blood on your hands."

"What's going to happen now." he asked despondently.

"Can't say for sure. Might have you send another message, don't know yet."

"You're going to leave me down here." he was starting to look scared now.

"As I said, not my decision. But I will tell them you were a big help."

As they left William picked up the book he had been reading, then threw it aside angrily. He only noticed the title and its author then. "Don't Let the Bastards See You Sweat," by F. Fontaine.

As they walked to Clarice's rooms he asked quietly "Fontaine was a writer? Doesn't seem the type."

*That's one book I never wanted to read. I wonder what these people's fascination with sweat is? Ryan was always going on about "Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?* Elizabeth said in a mocking tone.

"Probably just good propaganda. Really don't see either of them bein' big on doing the hard stuff themselves."

*You could be right.*

By that time Booker had donned one of the makeshift coats and they stood outside the door to Clarice's rooms. He knocked and after a moment Martin called from inside to come in.

–Elizabeth–

Booker opened the door and slipped inside the freezing room.

Martin was the only person in the room. He smiled a little. "I was wondering if I should send someone out to look for you."

"Sorry, my errands took a little longer than I thought."

Clarice came from the other room, a wave of cold mist preceding her. "Mr. DeWitt, glad to see you. I trust things have gone well." She moved her left arm normally, but kept her hand closed.

"Got the information all the information I think we will get. First off I would like you to think about taking the wireless operator, William, with you."

Clarice made a puzzled expression and Martin asked why.

"I don't think he supports Atlas anymore and he seems to be good with radios and electronics. Could be useful. He played it straight with sending out the message and correctly decoding what came back. Think he's a kid that made a mistake. Not sure how far I would trust 'em yet, but my gut tells me he's not going to put a knife in our back."

'Booker seems to be intent on giving William a second chance. Did anyone ever give Booker a second chance when he was young?'

"I would like to talk to him before any decision is made." Clarice decided.

"Sounds fair. While I was out I discovered a new problem. The fat man downstairs works for Ryan. Or at least feeds his people information."

"Fat man? You mean Witherspoon?" Martin seemed surprised. Clarice in contrast, didn't seem surprised at all.

"Yeah, when we make our move to take out the guards, we'll need to keep him busy so he can't warn them. Or get a warning up to Rapture."

"Always thought the man was a self-serving rotter." Clarice interjected. "I take it you have an idea to deal with him."

She was rather surprised to hear Clarice talk like that. *She must dislike Witherspoon more than we do.*

"Either we disable the Pneumo system, or we disable him."

"Wait, wait. Witherspoon sold stuff to use, cheap. He helped us."

*Martin is still a little too trusting I think.*

"He sold things to us because it suited his purpose. Not because he liked us, Martin." Clarice explained.

"Wouldn't be a surprise if he was trying to keep you and Marks fighting each other. Would make it alot harder to pull off an escape attempt." Booker added.

"But what would he get out of it?" Martin was still confused.

"ADAM for one thing." Booker told him.

"And possibly of a chance to return to Rapture. Though I doubt Ryan would allow such a thing. It would be an easy way to control a pompous fool like him." Clarice finished.

*I wish we could find a way to help Clarice before we leave Booker. I'm going to miss her.*

Booker nodded his head slightly to say he agreed or at least understood.

"I do not believe disabling the Pneumo's is a practical solution. So that means "Mister" Witherspoon will need to be disabled." She got the feeling that Clarice would have no problem with Witherspoon being disabled permanently.

"Think you will be up to it Clarice?"

The splicer smiled harshly. "Yes, I do. I believe I would enjoy it as well. He relies overly much on his turrets. They are older models that are vulnerable to the cold."

"We can go over the particulars later." Booker said pushing the conversation along. "We are going to have send people to Suchong's lab in groups of two or three people. That way they shouldn't attract too much attention. When we're ready, I can make the call to the guards."

"How many people will be needed for this?" Martin inquired.

"Should have at least two people to send down the gas bomb. I'll take them the elevator. You should pick someone with steady nerves for that job. One person will need to watch the camera's. Would like at least four people to back me up. Seven total."

"Back you up?" Clarice asked.

"Learned the hard way that plans don't always work. I've taken on worse odds and won, but having more people with me might stop a fight before it starts."

*Our great "plan" to get guns for Daisy still on your mind?* Booker didn't respond to that one.

"I guess." Martin didn't seem all that happy about it. Clarice gave him a disapproving glance.

"When would you like to start Mr. DeWitt?" Clarice asked.

"Now, if we can."

Martine blinked in surprise and Clarice gave a little half smile.

"When you are prepared, I shall be ready Mr. DeWitt. Martin and I shall go and visit Mr. Witherspoon while you disable the guards. Now I believe the two of you have work to do."

*She seems to want to keep Martin close while she has the chance.* Elizabeth said with a note of sadness. It wasn't fair. Here was someone she liked and she couldn't do anything to help her. Unfair.

There she went again, sounding like a child.

As the two men left Clarice's rooms Booker asked if there was a small meeting room away from people where he could talk everyone. Martin indicated a room down the corridor and said it would probably ten or fifteen minutes before he had everyone together.

As Booker walked down the corridor he softly asked "Elizabeth, how do you talk to me?"

That question caught her a bit off guard. *I never thought about it. Getting tired of me making comments and not being able to respond?* she lightly teased.

He gave a soft laugh. "Not really. Been a few times I have wanted to ask questions though."

Booker entered the small meeting room and closed the door behind him and she thought about exactly how she talked to Booker. It was several more minutes before she felt she had any understanding of it.

*Booker, when I talk to you, it's like I am talking, but without moving my mouth. I have to decide to speak. It's a little like thinking out loud I guess, but more deliberate. I can't think of a better way to put it.*

"Guess that's as good as I'm going to get. Have some time, so might as well try and figure this out."

As Booker tried to figure out "silent talking", she worked at figuring a better way to explain what she did. It was nearly five minutes later when she felt something change. She didn't know what changed, but knew that it had. The closest thing she could think of was a switched being thrown. Booker blinked several times.

*Booker, did you..*

*Elizabeth, can you hear me?*

*Booker! I heard that! Do it again!* 'Finally. He doesn't have to sound like a madman anymore.'

*You can hear me? About time.*

*So how did you do it?*

"I don't think this is going to work."

*What? I can... Booker what are you thinking?*

*We're probably still being watched.*

"Ok, I'll keep on trying." He made his voice sound tired and slightly irritated.

*The Luteces. Should have thought of that myself. So how do you do it?*

*Guess I talk, but don't allow myself to make any sound. Know why you couldn't explain it.*

Just then they started to hear voices in the corridor outside and moment later the door opened. To her surprise Clarice was the first person through the door. She wore the heavy coat and gloves Martin usually wore and a pair of dark slacks.

*She's wearing that coat to keep the cold in. Guess she doesn't want to accidentally freeze someone.* Even with the coat though there was a cold mist that hung around her.

"Greeting's Mr. DeWitt. I decided that I should be here for your meeting before speaking to William. It will make things go smoother I believe."

"Thank you very much." Was all that Booker said, but it was clear he meant it.

Martin, Sam and eight other people followed Clarice in. She noticed Sergio among them and the woman they had gotten information at the barricade from when Marks attacked. After everyone got settled in, Clarice went and stood by Booker and began speaking.

"I am sure you have seen or heard about the gentleman beside me. His name is Booker DeWitt and he has earned my trust. As you know that is not an easy thing." She smiled and several of the people in the room chuckled in response. "Please pay close attention to what Mr. DeWitt has to say. He has a plan for all of you to escape this prison and return to Rapture."

Hope blossomed on some people's faces, others were just surprised. Then they started to ask questions all at once. This was going to take all of Booker's concentration so she decided that she would need to keep her communications with him to a minimum.

Booker raised both his hands. "Whoa, save all your questions for later. First thing is call me Booker. And can you tell me your names? Yelling "Hey you" isn't very polite." As Booker spoke Clarice stepped aside and withdrew to the rear of the room. Martin moved to follower her, but Booker motioned for him to stay.

Booker took a few minutes to give the assembled people a brief outline of the plan and then started going into specific details. While it was clear Booker was running the meeting, he somehow made it seem he was not taking over anything. He asked questions of Martin several times and kept him involved.

It took a few minutes for her to realize what Booker was trying to do, even though it seemed familiar. He wasn't leading or manipulating these people, he was working with them. Columbia and Rapture were all about power and leaders enforcing agendas. Comstock, Ryan, Fink, Cohen, even Slate and Daisy. It seemed familiar because it was a little like the sense of cooperation what she and Booker had built up through the fighting in the Factory and Emporia. She knew that if Booker wanted, he could make himself the leader of the group given a little time. But he seemed to be working hard to avoid that. Then she realized she felt proud of him.

Booker finished up his explanation of the plan and asked if there were any questions. One of the men in back, Bradley asked. "Are you the same DeWitt that's a PI up on Market Street?"

She really hadn't expected that question, but Booker took it in stride. "No, that's someone else."

"Good. Heard he's a real jackass." Bradley responded and a few people chuckled in response.

*You don't know the half of it.* They both said at the same time.

"Any other questions?" No one had any. "Good. I have a couple of things left to do and we can start. Sam do you think you and Tim can meet me in front of Rafael's in about fifteen minutes?"

"Sure thing Booker."

*Boy has his attitude changed.*

"I'll show you Suchong's lab and then the other people can start filtering down about twenty minutes after that."

"Martin and I shall pay a visit to "Mister Witherspoon." She was amazed that someone with such a refined accent could make "Mister" sound like a curse word. She again worried about what Clarice might do to the fat man.

"That will be perfect." Booker said. "After I show Sam the lab, I'll take Mary and Josh to the elevator and give Ryan's people a call." Mary was the woman they had met at the barricade and Josh was a small sharp eyed man with dark slicked back hair.

"If there is nothing else? Anyone?" Booker looked around but no one said anything. "Let's go then." He said with a confidence filled voice.

As the other people filed out of the room she said *That was well done Booker. Makes me wonder where that cynical detective went.*

*He rescued a magical princess imprisoned in a great tower by an evil king and learned to trust other people again*

*Oh for... That sounds like a fairy tale you should be telling your daughter.* she griped.

Everyone was gone by now and Booker gave a short, soft laugh and started to follow them out. "Anna had about the same reaction you did." His voice turned more serious. "But, it's not that far off. Before I went to Columbia, I didn't let anyone to get close to me. No real friends. Hated myself and what I'd done. Sometimes, I even blamed Annabelle for dying. For not being there."

Before she could respond he continued.

"I know it doesn't make sense. And that it was wrong. Just made me hate myself more. You were the first person I trusted in a long time Elizabeth." he finished sadly.

*Booker, you're the Only person I've ever trusted. Well, after I hit you with a wrench.* she added apologetically.

"Did kinda deserve it."

She did her best to sound haughty and self-righteous. *You most certainly did deserve it! Lying to a Princess like that! Humph!* She became more somber. *I guess being a DeWitt involves some trust issues.*

By now they were on the stairs heading down to the main floor. "No. Our problems been caused by what people did to us. And the mistakes we made. But we can change, can't we? Don't you trust Clarice and Martin? Even a little?"

She had to think a moment on that. *I like them. Certainly more than anyone else I've met in Rapture. I think I do trust them some. Guess being dead doesn't keep me from changing.*

Booker seemed to be about to say something, but changed his mind. Probably something about her not being dead. She wished he would just start to accept it. By then they were in front of the Rafael's Suits.

"Well, time to pick up my new suit."

*Good. I'm sure your old style clothes is one reason Clarice figured out you're not from Rapture.*

"You really think so? What I'm wearing doesn't seem that different." Booker murmured skeptically.

'Men.' *People pay a great deal of attention to fashion down here. It's a status symbol. Your clothes are different from anything else down here. That makes them stand out.*

"Alright, alright. Let's get this over with."

The tailor came out from the back as they entered the store. "Ah, excellent timing sir. My wife just finished up. One moment please while I get your suit for you."

Less than three minutes later he was back. "Here you go sir." the tailor said as he handed Booker the suit. "There is a changing room over there so you can try them on. Always like to see a customer leaving being properly dressed." The man's smile was genuine and full of pride.

Booker thanked him and walked to the changing room.

They stepped into the small room and Booker changed into his new clothes, after spending several moments working out a way to avoid potential embarrassment. When he was done he looked at himself in the mirror. He now wore a dark gray jacket with light gray pinstripes and matching pants. The vest was the same color as the suit and had the "Shock Therapy" Gear equipped. His new shirt was white and a brilliant red tie finished off the assemblage. She swore it was the exact same shade of red as his old kerchief.

*He does good work Booker. You *almost* look like a respectable businessman.*

Booker gave her a mock irritated glare in the mirror and then made a wry smile. "Does fit well." He admitted after a moment. "Better go pay the man."

He went to pick up his old cloths. *You're going to keep those?* she asked skeptically.

"Why not? Going to be need 'em again."

*Humph. If you really Want to keep those old things. I must have gotten my sense of fashion from the other side of the family.*

It probably *was* a good idea for Booker to keep his old clothes for when he went back home. But that didn't mean she wasn't going to have a little fun.

"I'm sure you did. Uh, I'll tell you about it later." What's that about?

They exited the room with Booker's old clothes under his arm. The tailor's face broke into a huge smile when he saw Booker. "Isabella, come and see!" he called back. Moments later an elderly woman came out from in back and both of them looked him over and made approving sounds.

*Certainly are proud of their work.*

"Sorry, but I have some things I need to do." Booker broke in.

"Apologies Sir, we get so few chances these days to do good work." Booker paid the man and asked if they had something to put his old clothes in. Isabella shrugged and produced a bag.

As they left, the tailor called out "Remember, take care of your suit and it will take care of you!"

*Booker, when we get out of there, do you think there might be room to get some of these other people out of there? Not the splicers, but there should be some other people around here we can take.*

"Don't know. Have to ask Clarice and Martin about it."

Booker glanced down the mall and saw the Big Daddy with his Little Sister. The girl was skipping along totally oblivious to the real world around her. 'How do they see the world? What will happen when they see things as they really are?' She was sure she used to know. She wished she remembered how it worked out, that they would be safe. 'I guess I still have to trust myself.'

Now they stood in front of the Gene Bank. *So what are you going to get?*

"Not really a lot of choices. Nothin' here for Possession or Bypass. Don't have Bucking Bronco or Shock Jockey. Just leaves the Devil's Kiss Trap Upgrade."

'Killing someone with a Trap has a chance of causing the deceased to explode and throw fireballs up to ten feet around them.' *Are you sure you want that?*

"Hunf. Want is too strong a term. Get the feeling I'm going to need it. Think there will be some Bronco at the other store?"

*Comstock managed to find a bottle of it. Maybe we can find a Gene Bank that has some for sale.*

"Well, here goes." Booker purchased the Upgrade and turned away from the machine to see Sam and Tim walking towards Rafael's. "Damn. Running late."

They quickly walked over to Rafael's and arrived just as the other two men got there.

"You're looking sharp." Sam told Booker.

"Thanks." Booker told him after a split second hesitation. *Looking sharp" means you look good.* She thought about making another comment, but it was time to be serious.

They made their way to the double doors that led to Suchong's Lab. Just before going through them, each man drew a weapon. Booker and Tim pistols and Sam his shotgun.

The doors slid open and revealed the corridor beyond looking the same as it did before. "Don't shoot unless we're being attacked. Don't want any fights we can avoid." Booker told the other two men. They headed down the corridor towards Suchong's Lab. They didn't encounter anyone else and the only signs that anyone else had been there were from the Big Daddy and the Little Sister.

*Guess the splicers haven't been brave enough to start coming in here yet.*

*Let's hope it stays that way for a few more hours.*

They got to the Lab without incident and Booker opened the hidden door. Soon they were looking the monitor showing Ryan's Guards below them.

"Not many guards. Thought we would be more important." Sam seemed slightly puzzled.

"Not with Atlas up in Rapture causing trouble. Lucky Ryan didn't just turn off the air. Probably will now."

"What da ya mean?" Tim asked.

Sam swore. "You're right Booker. After we break out'a here, Ryan will probably shut this place down. And everyone in it. Does the Boss..."

"Yeah, she knows." Booker said sadly. "Sooner or later Ryan will shut it down anyway. Least we can get some people out. Right now our job is to get things ready." He gestured at the shortwave Tim had with him. "Remember you can only listen until the bomb goes off. After that we will need to know how well it worked."

'Saving some people will get other people killed. But doing nothing will mean everyone dies. Hell of a choice. Whatever we do, people die.'

"Where is this stairway down?" Sam asked.

"Suchong's Office. Keep everyone up here until I get back." Booker told them and left to go get Mary and Josh, the gas bomb and take them to the elevator. Sam waited by the double doors to escort the next pair of people in.

When they got up to the fourth floor Mary and Josh were waiting for him along with the other people involved with the exception of Clarice. Martin said she had gone back to her quarters until she was needed. On the way to the elevator, they stopped at the pharmacy to drop off his old cloths and pick up the first gas bomb. When Booker asked who wanted to carry it, Josh looked at Mary who rolled her eyes and took it from Booker.

"Don't worry, it won't explode. Just don't let anything happen to it." Out of the corner of Booker's eye she noticed Mary give Josh a glare as they turned to leave.

Then they headed to the elevator. Back past "Madam's Intimate Apparel" and "Robert's Confectionaries" and into "Ladies Tip Top Fashions". It had only been a few days since they had been here last, it felt like months had passed to her.

In "Tip Top Fashions" Booker grabbed a abandoned metal chair and handed it to Josh. "What's this for?" he asked.

"Not going to put that bomb on the floor." Booker explained.

They had only seen a few splicers along the way, but they hadn't attacked and one even seemed friendly. Of course he also seemed to be drunk. Booker had the other two stay in "Tip Top" and he walked into the lobby alone. He was very carefully looking around.

*You think there might be a camera here?*

"Not going to take a chance there is." he softly told her.

After several minutes of searching he decided it was clear and told Mary and Josh it was ok to come in. Josh had trouble getting the chair through the door and Booker had to hold the door open for him. He smiled sheepishly then carried the chair into the lobby.

*I am SO glad Mary has the bomb.*

Mary quickly absorbed what Booker told them about the placement of the bomb and the procedure to they were to follow for setting it off. Josh was a little slower, but Mary promised there would be no problem. "And two clicks on the radio for when we send it down. Got it." she finished confidentially.

"Good" She could hear the smile in Booker's voice. He took out his watch and looked at the time. "Bout another ten minutes until everyone is in place downstairs. I better get going."

Josh asked "Do you think the Boss is going to be ok?"

"I'm sure Clarice will be fine." called over his shoulder as went back into the clothing store.

*It's Witherspoon they should worry about. How old do you think those two are?*

"Late twenties. Mary, maybe thirty."

*Hard to believe those two are brother and sister. They're so different.*

"They can be that way sometimes. Think it's time to give our friends downstairs a call."

–Booker–

"Hey Alex, you there? This is DeWitt."

Two minutes passed. 'Sure hope that offer didn't expire. That would really cause problems.'

+_Hey, DeWitt. You hear me?_+

"Yeah I can hear you. That offer still good?"

+_Yeah, still good. This is the last day though. Scuttlebutt has it that this place isn't going to be around much longer._+

*Damn. Ryan must be getting ready to pull the plug on this place.*

"Ok, you win. Give me a couple minutes to get to the elevator. I'm coming down."

+_Don't try to bring anyone with you and your hands better be up in the air. I don't care if Sullivan does want you in one piece. I see *anything* fishy, you'll look like a colander before we're done with ya. Got it?_+

"Yeah, I got it." He made his voice sound a little tired and defeated.

*He sure bluster's a lot. No wonder Ryan stuck him down here.*

"Probably why John is the one giving orders. He's the only one that's trying to do his job."

He made his way to Suchong's Lab and took a moment to look over Tim's shoulder. There were only eight guards he could see. Four of them had taken up positions to cover the elevator door. The rest just hung back and didn't seem all that worried. The only thing he could do was shake his head at their attitude. Wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though.

He hurried to Suchong's office and found Sam had already found and opened the hidden door. The rest of the people were standing around and softly talking to each other.

"Ok, no talking for any reason. When I'm on the shortwave, don't even move. If they get wind that anything is wrong, this whole thing's scotched. I'll be going down first, Sam will be after me and Bill you're on the end."

One of them, Wilbert he thought, opened his mouth to say something, but Xin, a small but fierce looking woman elbowed him in the ribs and he shut up.

Had to smile at that. "Good, let's go."

They headed down the spiral staircase, past the empty bathysphere dock and into the corridor. He had everyone wait there while he went into the office and quietly unlocked the door and checked the corridor outside to make sure it was clear. Then he returned to the office.

*Here we go.* he told Elizabeth. "Ok, I'm at the elevator. What's the code to open the door?"

+_Codes 4-0-7-6. Remember. No tricks. John would be happy to pay you back._+

"Promise you, I'm working very hard to make sure no one gets hurt or dead."

*They hadn't even changed the code?*

*Probably never occurred to them.*

+_Hey, what's taking so long._+

"Give me a sec. I got one of the numbers wrong."

Then he heard two clicks. "Ok, got it. Heading down now."

He carefully walked back out into the corridor and motioned the rest to follow him. Clarice's people were doing pretty good for irregulars so far. Damn, how long was it going to take for that elevator to get down there?

+_DeWitt! You bastard! What game are you playing? Deals off! You're gonna.._\+ Another voice broke in +_Hey, there's smo-WUMP-_+

Tim's voice came over the radio +_We got at least six of them! I can't see the others because of the smoke!_+

"Follow me!" he called and took off down the corridor. They turned the corner and found that it widened and split.

*Go right!*

Without hesitation he took the right branch and charged ahead of the people following him. For not the first time he had wished they had been able to find a map.

+_I can see one more down. That's seven!_+

The corridor they were in took a left turn went down about thirty feet before opening into a larger area. A man in a long coat was leaning against a wall coughing. He looked up and groggily started to go for his holstered pistol.

The guard's gun had just cleared leather when he slammed the man hard against the wall and sent the pistol flying. He didn't stop and yelled for Wilbert to take care of the guard.

Then he was in the lobby. The elevator was on the right side, its door still open and covered by a lingering cloud of gray green gas. Another guard was on the far side of the room and was starting to bring up the machine gun he was holding. Reflexively he launched Possession at the man before he could fire.

He heard several weapons being cocked behind him. "Don't shoot! He's safe of the moment."

The Possessed guard stood for a moment, then ran in his general direction firing at a something down a corridor to their left. Then they heard a turret start up. The guard poured fire down the corridor and he assumed into the turret. After a moment it started firing back striking the guard several times.

He grabbed the Possessed guard and hauled him out of the line of fire. Then he leaned around the corner to fire Bypass at the turret.

"I understand! I understand!" the guard kept on muttering until he was struck on the back of the head with the Sky-Hook.

He walked down the corridor to the turret and stepped behind it. Moments later he had ripped apart it's insides with the Sky-Hook.

"Turrets dead! Spread out and look for anyone else!" he ordered. "Xin! Start collecting weapons! Kwabena you help and start tying them up. When you're done, use a health kit on the wounded guard. Everyone else spread out and look for any we missed!"

They only found one more guard and he had been asleep in a makeshift barracks. He could just imagine the rude awakening he received. There had only been ten guards assigned to this building and now all of them were tied up and sitting in the lobby. The bathysphere mechanic had been called to go over the spheres.

Most of the guards would be asleep for a while longer and he planned to go see Clarice and Martin.

*Surprised that went so well. Was expecting something to go horribly wrong.* he told Elizabeth.

*Sometimes even we can get lucky Booker. No one is dead and no one got hurt to badly. Something to be proud of.*

*Unfortunately, this was probably the easy part.*

End Chapter 14


	15. Chapter 15

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 15

–Booker–

No one was dead. He knew he should feel happy about that, but knowing that Ryan would kill all of them if any word got out easily killed off any feeling of satisfaction. Sam had everything under control so Booker decided that he better go and see what happened with Witherspoon.

*What do you think Clarice did with Witherspoon?*

"Don't know."

*And that's the worry. If Clarice did kill him, do you think it would convince Martin he should leave?*

"Probably not." he said sadly.

*That's what I thought as well.*

The entered the main promenade and he noticed that there were very few people around. Even Joe's was empty.

*Where is everyone?* Elizabeth asked as he drew his pistol.

"Don't know. Better get to Witherspoon's."

Just before they reached the stairway that lead to the bank, the doors leading to them opened and Clarice and Martin walked through them. She seemed to have a pleased expression on her face. Martin looked rather happy as well and he was carrying a box.

"Ah, Mr. DeWitt. I take it you were successful."

"Yeah, rather not talk about it here. What happened with Witherspoon?"

"Mister Witherspoon will be... occupied for the next several days. All the ice on his office door will keep him safely out of the way."

The splicer started walking towards the main stairs that led upstairs. He looked around again before asking "What happened to everyone?"

Martin answered "Seems that Witherspoon told us out the combination for the vault while he was begging for his life. Very considerate of him don't you think?"

*Guess that's why Martin's happy.*

"Many of the people here felt that Mister Witherspoon had taken advantage of them and now seek to redress the situation." Clarice finished. "It was also very helpful of him to make a... donation from his personal accounts. My people will now have access to a significant amount of funds when they return to Rapture. And Martin found something you may find useful. You seem to be the only person that want's these."

Martin reached into the box and handed him a Infusion.

"This was in the vault? That's convenient." Booker said as he accepted the bottle.

"Yeah, it was sitting in an open safety deposit box. No idea what it was doing in there." Martin added.

"Thanks. So, made a decision about William?"

"An earnest young man. I believe you are correct in your estimation of him Mr. DeWitt." Clarice's expression darkened slightly. "And I believe that been thinking in too limited a fashion about the people that should escape this place. I am sure that there are a number of unspliced people who can be safely transported."

"If I may suggest, don't let anyone know anything until the last minute. Not going to be able to give any warning to anyone you want to take along. If the splicers find out, they'll try and grab the spheres for themselves."

"It seems you around considered this course of action already Mr. DeWitt."

He shrugged slightly. "Learned the hard way about thinking things through."

*Come on Booker, our plans in Columbia worked perfectly.* He could just see the big smile on her face when she said that.

"What happened with Ryan's Guards?" Martin asked.

"None dead. One hurt, but not badly. They were looking at the spheres when I left."

"And what is the next Mr. DeWitt?"

"I get the other gas bomb and talk to the guards."

"Why would you want to talk to them? They're probably just going to lie." Martin seemed slightly puzzled, as did Clarice.

He smiled. "Sometimes you can learn as much from lies as the truth."

Clarice turned to look at him. "And if you gain the information you seek, you will go to the other building."

"Yeah, get as many spheres as we can and start moving people. And I best get on that. The guards should be waking up soon."

"I wish you luck Mr. DeWitt. I trust I will see you again before you leave for the final time."

"You will. I have one or two things to take care of."

"Luck Booker." Martin called.

He gave them a casual wave and headed to the pharmacy drinking the Infusion along the way. He hit the turret with Bypass and collected the second gas bomb. Then he looked around for a moment.

"Anything else you think I should take?"

*We need to travel light and I'm sure you can find a better bed than That one. I'm amazed you can sleep on that.*

"Bunks in the Army weren't much more comfortable. Huh, Shock Jockey."

*Wish we could take it. Might prove useful at some point.*

"Don't see how. So leave it or pour it down the drain?"

*Leave it. You can lock it up in back.*

"I guess. Better destroy the messages we decoded. Don't want anyone else to read 'em."

*You think Ryan would send people down here?*

"Better safe than sorry. Don't want to do anything to help either of them, unless it's to keep at each other's throats."

*You're going to have explain that a little.*

"Best that Ryan and Atlas do as much damage to each other as they can. Easier for Clarice's people to hide and fewer people for your friend Jack to fight."

*I feel sorry for the people caught in the middle.*

"Not that we can do about that right now. Maybe when we get up there we will be able to help some of them out like we're doing now."

*About the only thing we can do right now I supose.*

They stepped out the door just as the blue flames that covered the turret faded away.

*Funny. We were only here two days and I felt more comfortable there than I did after two months in my apartment up in Rapture. I guess..." her voice trailed off.

"Guess what?" he asked as he headed down the stairs to the main floor. It was several moments before she spoke.

*Home is where the heart is.* She sounded a little sad, but also like she had discovered something. *After I figured out that the Tower was a really a prison, it never felt like home to me. I wanted to get out so badly. I suppose it never really was my home at all. When I came to Rapture, I wasn't thinking about a home, just revenge.*

He winced inside. All those years in that Tower with only Songbird for company. His fault. Why couldn't have Comstock have treated her as his daughter rather than a tool?

'Because that was less important than running from his guilt.'

"You could'a had the life of a princess. Never known or cared about me. But Comstock wouldn't have that."

To his surprise Elizabeth chuckled. *Some part of me always knew. Always would have known. Imprinting works both ways Booker.* *Remember when I told you that when I was young that I would open new tears and go through them?*

"Yeah." Where is she going with this?

*I was looking for something. Never knew what it was. I was looking for home, my family.*

*I was looking for you.*

*I thought my family was in Columbia, so I always went back. I never realize what I was looking for on the other side of a tear. That's probably one reason why you kept that old office. It was your only link to me. The only thing you had left.*

"Humf. Never thought about it that way. I always hoped I would be able to find you somehow, even if it was a pipe dream."

*A pipe dream that came true Booker. Never forget that. Besides, I never wanted to be a "princess". Better to have a home.*

They were nearly at the lobby where the guards were being held up. *Let's get to finding Anna so we both can go home.*

They walked into the lobby and saw that the guards had been tied up or handcuffed and seated in chairs. They were awake, even if a few seemed groggy. Sam came over and said that both spheres were in working and everything was ready.

"Where are the guns you took from them?" Booker asked.

Sam pointed off to his right. "Got'em stored in there. Saved a Tommy Gun for ya."

"Thanks." he said and went into the room which had "Armory" sloppily written on the door. He went and looked around a moment. There was a single heavy revolver like the one he already carried, so he just glanced at it. He then picked up and examined one smaller pistols. Looked like it was a copy of a popular British model. Why they were using a design nearly as old as he was, he had no idea. There were racks for other weapons, but Clarice's people must have taken them already.

'It's not here, dammit.' His pistol the guards had taken from him wasn't here.

He picked up the Tommy Gun that had put aside for him and examined it for a few moments. Unloaded it, looked at the round magazine and reloaded it, tried the safety, cocked it and generally got the feel for it. 'Heavy. Carrying this around is going to cut into how much ammunition I can haul. Hope it's worth it.'

*Ok, Booker. You're going to explain how you do that.* she seemed a bit irritated.

*Do what?*

*Picking up a weapon and know how to use it.*

*Don't really think it's the right time to talk about that.*

*You're right.* she relented. Then she put on a stubborn expression *But I am going ask about it later.*

*Ok, ok. Tell you when we get some time.* 'Not that I really know myself.' He was loading up on ammunition when they spotted an Audio Diary behind a shelf.

*Huh. Those things show up in the strangest places.*

_Corporal John Chirpsir: Sargent Gunderson_

_January, 6__th__ 1959_

_Gunderson is spineless and corrupt. Would have been tossed in jail years ago if he didn't have friends in low and high places. They weren't enough to keep him from getting sent down here though. Don't know what I did to deserve getting stuck down in this hellhole with him and the rest of these idiots. Only way out is do the job and hope someone notices I'm the only competent one down here. _

He left the armory and walked over to the tied up guards. Alex and John glared at him hatefully, like what he done was personal betrayal. He ignored them for the moment though. He wanted something else first.

He walked over to one of the guards and looked down at him with a hard expression on his face. The guard looked up and nervously.

Alex yelled at him trying to get his attention, but he ignored him.

"I think you have something of mine." he asked in a low, not overly friendly voice.

The seated guard tried to smile. "Hey, I got nothin' of yours."

"Where is my pistol?"

*You're looking for your gun?*

*Sentimental value.*

The guards face fell. "I don't got it no more." He tried to smile again and failed terribly.

"Where is it?"

One of the other guards broke in "Don't tell him anything Charlie! This little fish isnALCH"

He reached over and grabbed the loud mouth guard by collar and picked him up. "Bad things happen to people that intrude into other people's conversations. If you don't want something bad to happen to you, I suggest you mind your own business. Understand?"

Sweat broke out on the guards face and he made a few inarticulate sounds.

"Just nod your head." he commanded.

The guard nodded his head and Booker dropped him back to into the chair.

*Now this is much more how I imagined a big tough detective like you would interrogate someone.* She tried to sound matter of fact about it, but he could tell she had enjoyed seeing the guard taken down a few pegs.

He turned back to the first guard. "Now, where's my pistol?"

"Well, I uh, sold it."

"My money and food?"

"Think everyone spent the money." he said dejectedly.

"The food?"

The guard looked sheepish. "It, um tasted good. Hey! They don't ship anything decent down here. We deserve to have a good meal, don't... we?"

The man's voice trailed off as he leaned over and put his face just inches away from the guard's.

"How much did you get for my pistol?"

"Guy I know is a collector. He gave me 100 dollars for it. Said it was in real good shape for being so old. Almost... new…" The man withered under his glare.

He stood up and looked over at Sam. "Could you remind me that these people owe me 250 dollars before we leave?" Sam smiled and nodded.

*I don't think that guy ever learned when to shut up.* Elizabeth observed in an amused tone.

He went over to stand in front of Alex. "Ok Alex, need some information. And you, or your men, are going to give it to us."

"Nobody is gonna tell you anything." He looked over at the other men. "You hear that, don't tell these people anything!"

"Come on Alex, just looking to get these people up to Arcad...Rapture safely. What harm is there in that?"

*Nice. Pretending to say Arcadia and stopping yourself. Should buy Clarice's people a little breathing room.*

"That's Sargent Gunderson to you and I'm not letting traitors back into Rapture! Not on my watch!"

"Guess we're not friends anymore." He grabbed Alex by the collar and pulled him to his feet. "I think we need to have our little talk someplace else." He pointed down a corridor and gave Alex a gentle push when he didn't walk.

"If you don't want to walk, I can drag you. Probably get banged up along the way."

Alex glared at him a moment and apparently decided that he wasn't joking.

*Seems that he doesn't like being on the receiving end that much.* Elizabeth smirked.

*People like him love to push other people around. Hate it when it happens to them.*

Several minutes later they entered the Bathysphere docking bay. Clarice's people where in the bay, most of them around the sphere they were planning to leave in.

"What are we doing down here?" Alex demanded.

"Decided that instead of a talk, we should take a little trip."

"Trip? Trip where?"

"The other department store building up by Rapture."

"Hey, I'm not supposed to go back there."

"You were there before. What's the problem?"

"It's off limits now! I'm only supposed go back in an emergency" the guard worriedly explained.

"Just tell them you have an emergency and need to talk to someone of higher rank."

"They have people guarding the place. Why not just go back to Rapture?"

He smiled. "Only thing you need to worry about is getting safely into the dock. Just remember, anything that happens to this sphere, happens to you."

*Laying it on a bit think aren't you?*

Alex's shoulder's slumped. Then he glared at Booker. "Ok, ok."

*Worked.* he told her as Alex dejectedly climbed into the sphere.

–Elizabeth–

Booker handed the gas bomb to Bishop and climbed into the sphere, sitting down next to Alex. Sylvester, the mechanic, pulled the lever and the sphere was on its way. She had taken a number of trips in spheres since arriving Rapture, but didn't enjoy the experience. The cold dark water summoned memories of her first visit to Rapture. Her drowning Songbird. Starting down the path that led her to doing the same to Booker.

Now she was with Booker again and trying to get back into Rapture. This city had led to both their deaths once already. She hoped history wasn't going to repeat itself.

The trip took some time and Booker went over the plan again with Clarice's people. She thought he was doing it more to keep them occupied on the trip than anything else. She did have a worry though.

*Are you sure that Alex isn't going to try something?*

*Don't think so. He doesn't want to die. And if he does try something, I'll have Possession ready.*

*You don't seem to like using it as much as you did in Columbia.*

*Guess it seems a bit too much like what Comstock was trying to do with you. Controlling a person's mind shouldn't be done lightly.*

Looking out the viewport they could now see the Fontaine Department Store building and the lights of Rapture beyond it. Ryan wanted to keep it isolated from the rest of Rapture for some reason. Why? The Lutece Device wouldn't require that kind of isolation. Ryan must have something else going on inside it. The messages from Atlas said construction work. Didn't make sense. She was starting to get the feeling that she did know, but couldn't remember.

'So many memories, but not the ones I need.'

When they got about 100 yards from the building the radio crackled to life and an overly official sounding voice started speaking.

+_Approaching Sphere, this is a restricted area by the order of Andrew Ryan. State your business or withdraw immediately._+

Booker picked up the sphere's radio and held it in front of Alex. "You're on, don't do anything stupid."

"Hey Walt, it's Alex Gunderson." The guard said in his friendliest voice.

The voice on the other end of the radio became much more relaxed. +_Watcha doing here Alex? Thought they had they downstairs?_+

"Yeah, they do. Listen I got a problem. Rather not talk about on the air. Who knows who might be listening."

+_They finally figure out you been skimming from their food budget?_+

*Not at *all* surprised to hear that.*

"No no, nothing like that. Ah, it's problem with a prisoner. Has to be handled real quiet like."

+_Did you start bangin' one of them again or sumthing?_+

"NO! Listen, just let me dock. I'll tell you when I see ya."

+_Alright gimme a sec. Ok, use the Main Station._+

"Thanks."

+_I'll see ya when you dock. This better be good._+

The sphere changed course slightly and Booker put the radio back its cradle.

"Walt's not a bad guy. You're not going to kill him are you?" Alex asked Booker, a trouble expression on his face.

"Not if I can help it. You and your men are still alive aren't they?"

A few minutes later the sphere broke the surface inside a cavernous bathysphere station. A guard with lieutenant stripes stood just a few feet away with his arms crossed. Then the door opened and he got a look inside. His mouth opened and he went for his pistol before Booker hit him with Possession. The man stopped moving for an instant then finished drawing his pistol as he turned around.

Booker swiftly exited the sphere and spotted two guards and three civilian workers talking over by the large enclosed booth that held the control room. One of the workers noticed something was wrong and pointed at them. Bishop tossed the gas bomb in a lazy arc over the group's heads as Booker brought the shotgun up to his shoulder. When the bomb was about five foot above the men's heads he fired and the bomb exploded in a cloud of gray-green gas.

Those outside the booth were taken care of, but she doubted enough of the gas would get into the booth. They could see there was at least one person in there. She prayed that whoever was in the booth was too surprised to call for help.

The Possessed guard, Walt, started looking around for enemies. Spotting a worker near a stack of crates, he started shooting. Booker swore and used the Sky-Hook to knock the Possessed man out. The worker seeing her chance, scrambled for a bank of elevators along the wall.

Booker glanced behind him at Bishop and Xin. "You two, get to the control room!" he ordered and then used the Sky-Hook to jump to the nearest statue. He immediately jumped to another and then dismounted about fifteen feet in front of the worker.

"You're not going to get me, Parasite!" she screamed.

"Hey Lady, stand down I..." Booker called.

The woman's right hand went for the pistol stuck in her belt as a bolt of electricity leapt from her left hand. As it struck Booker, her hearing and vision turned to static. 'Damn it!'

It took almost twenty seconds for her vision to clear enough to see anything. When it did, Booker was reloading his shotgun and heading back to the control room.

*Booker, what happened?*

*You sound ah... fuzzy?*

*It seems that Electro Bolt has a similar effect as Shock Jockey. And that worker?* She asked even though she already knew the answer. She wasn't going to let Booker shoulder the burden alone.

He sighed. *She took cover. Couldn't hit with Possession. Wouldn't stop shooting.*

*Wouldn't expect ordinary people to be that aggressive.*

*Neither did I. Better expect everyone to try and fight now.*

She understood the meaning behind what Booker said. It was going to be like Emporia again. Both sides would be out to kill each other and them. Sparing people's lives may no longer be much of an option anymore.

A moment later they saw Bishop stick his arm out the door of the control booth and give a "thumbs up" sign.

The Bathysphere Station was theirs.

End Chapter 15


	16. Chapter 16

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 16

-Elizabeth-

Now that things had calmed down, she was able to pay proper attention to their surroundings. This bathysphere station was much larger than most of the others she had seen in Rapture and ornate even by Rapture's standards. Fine wood on the walls, marble floors and columns, large crystal chandeliers overhead, art deco statues of human figures with wings, a plush green carpet with a complex gold pattern woven into it, the whole works.

Fontaine had wanted this place to impress.

Marring the scene where stacks of crates and piles of what looked to be construction materials. To make for more room for the crates, the furniture had been pushed against the walls or into the Parisian style café. With the destruction of the walkways when the store was moved, the only method of getting anything large in here would have been by sphere.

It must have been a lot of work to get all this in here, but why?

Like in the maintenance bay, a crane system was in place to pick up a bathysphere and "park" it over to the side. The ultimate in valet service she supposed. The most important thing was that there were five spheres here, including the one they had arrived in. They should be able to able to get all of Clarice's people out and a few others in one shot.

Booker's attention was elsewhere though. He glanced at Sylvester who was handcuffing Walt. Two others were attending to the guards and workers knocked out by the gas bomb. They stepped into the control booth to see Bishop looking over the controls for the crane and Xin holding her gun on a heavyset man who was handcuffed to a pipe in the back of the booth.

"Any problems?"

"Nope, I think I'll have this figured out in a minute." Bishop responded.

"Have no problem with this one." Xin informed Booker.

"Good, I'll talk to him when get back."

Booker left the control booth and headed to where Sylvester was sitting by the still unconscious Walt.

*Other than being conscious, why did you choose the one Xin had captured to try and get information from?*

*Had the job that let him sit down all the time and watch everything, makes him the boss. Why do you want to know?*

*Just curious. I'd choose him because he was overweight, wore better clothes and had clean hands.*

*You're really enjoying playing detective, aren't you?*

*Something new to learn.*

Booker made an amused "humph" sound. By then they were nearly back to the sphere they had arrived in.

"Hey, is Walt alright?" came a worried voice from inside the sphere.

Booker bent down and checked the prostrate guard who made a soft groaning sound.

"Yeah, he'll be ok." he told Alex. Then to Sylvester "I'll take care of these two."

"Mind if I check those?" The mechanic asked and gestured to the other spheres. "Never liked gettin' in one of them I didn't give a look over first."

"You're the expert."

*Booker can you take a closer look at the spheres a moment?* He obliged quickly. *Two standard "classic" models made by Ryan Industries, serviceable, but boring. Another Manta Ray and on the far end, that's a Fontaine Whale Shark. The Whale Shark is more a truck than anything else. It can carry up to ten people or 2,440 pounds of cargo. Rumor has it that there were problems with the electrical system on early models. It's not sexy, but it gets the job done.*

*Sounds like you should be checking them out rather than Sylvester.*

*Can we? The Whale Shark has a really innovative design feature with the…"

She stopped talking when Booker chuckled softly. *What's so funny* she asked archly.

*You sound just like Anna when she gets really interested in something. Back to business.*

Booker picked up Walt and tossed him over his shoulder while telling Alex to get out of the sphere and walk ahead of him.

He carried the unconscious guard to where guards and workers where restrained and laid him out on the floor. She couldn't say Booker was gentle about it, but he made sure not to hurt him. Then Booker grabbed a spare set of handcuffs and led Alex towards the café.

"Wha, what are going to do with me? I did what you wanted!"

*John was right. This guy is pathetic.*

"Calm down. Just putting you someplace safe. When we're done I might just make it so you're the first one to get free and save the others. You'll be a hero." No small amount of sarcasm leaked into Booker's voice at the end.

"Yeah, yeah. I can get this to work. Just need a good story.…" He was so ingorssed in trying to up with a story she didn't even think he really noticed when Booker handcuffed him to a heavy water pipe in the café's kitchen.

She wanted to roll her eyes. *This guy wouldn't have lasted ten minutes as a police officer in Columbia.*

*Comstock woulda had him shot, did have people like him shot. Think there's anything worth scavenging here?*

*Probably worth a quick look, but we shouldn't take too much time.*

Booker spent exactly two minutes looking around netting several dollars, a bottle of Hop Up Cola and an Audio Diary.

_Lieutenant Walter Grant: Doorman_

_February 2, 1959_

_I got sent here to finish off Atlas's rebels. I had thirty people and they told me told to make sure there were no survivors. Wasn't hard. Ryan's Security had taken care of most of them already. We get done, BANG! That Suchong fella walks in and starts giving orders. More than half of my people get reassigned and I've been playing doorman since. Rather be busting heads._

'I guess Suchong wanted the Lutece Device back for some reason. Glad he didn't have much time to use it, but Ryan certainly is up to something with it.'

They left the café and headed to the control room. As they walked over, the crane came to life and started to move back and forth.

*Bishop wasn't kidding when he said he could figure it out.*

Moments later they walked into the control booth and to the prisoner. The man glared at Booker with pure hate.

"How many people are here?" Booker asked the man.

The man just continued to glare at them without saying anything. Booker looked at the man a few moments and turned away softly saying "Not going to be getting anything outa that one."

*What's wrong?*

*Not going to say anything unless I beat it outa him. Maybe not then.*

"Bishop, Xin. See any that looks like a schedule or anything official looking?"

Both responded that they hadn't. Booker found a pile of papers and they looked through them. Took a few minutes before they found what they were looking for.

*A schedule. Looks like the evening shift started about an hour ago.*

"Should have plenty of time before anyone notices anything."

*What next?*

*Find a place to put these people.*

*The Rest Rooms should work well enough.*

Booker looked around a moment before spotting them and walked over. "Think there'll be a code on the wall?" Booker asked lightly.

*Hope not. After reading all of Atlas's messages, I'm a bit tired of code breaking.* *Booker could you have really beaten the information out that man?*

"No."

*I thought that beating up someone to get information was standard practice for detectives?*

"Not this one. Not big on hitting someone that wasn't out to hit me first. And after what Comstock did to you and others? Hell, I don't even think it works."(1)

*Doesn't work?* She had never really thought about if it worked or not.

"Didn't work on you, did it? Or Chen Lin. If you do manage to break someone, they'll say anything to stop the pain, even lie."

The Rest Rooms proved to a good choice with lots of solid exposed pipes. They found a small cargo cart and moved everyone into the Men's Room. Booker made sure that the overweight supervisor was double secured. The dead worker was placed in the Ladies Room next door.

Just after they finished Sylvester walked up, an unhappy look on his face. "We got a problem. That Whale Shark has some burnouts on it, probably why it's still here."

Bishop piped up. "Can you fix it?"

The mechanic looked vaguely insulted. "Of course I can fix it, only 'bout a ten minute job. But I don't have the parts or tools."

*The Maintenance Bay should have the parts and tools.*

"Maintenance Bay should have what you need, right?" Booker asked.

The man took a step back. "I'm not going down there by myself."

"I'll go with you." Booker assured him.

"Hope Ryan didn't strip the place." Sylvester worried.

*Everything looked ok when I was there a month ago. The control room and parts storage had turrets covering them. Ryan's people may not have bothered with it.*

"How do we get there?"

"End elevator. Fontaine wanted the fat cats to be able to watch us work if they wanted."

*No great surprise there.*

This would be the first time she would be visiting a place she been while she had known while she had been alive. And she was slightly nervous about it, but also intrigued. How has the Maintenance Bay changed? How will seeing it through Booker's eyes be?

"Better get going. Not getting anything done standing here."

-Booker-

They quickly went to the elevator and the mechanic hit the button to send it down. The doors had just closed when Elizabeth spoke.

*Booker, I think we have a problem.* Another one? *We aren't going to have any time to look for Anna now.*

*Damn. Making sure Martin leaves means we have to go back down.*

*We can come back here after Clarice's people escape to Rapture.*

*Think a couple of hours will make any difference?*

*I hope not. I can't believe we overlooked this.*

*Got too focused on getting here.*

The door opened just as Elizabeth was saying *But we couldn't just refuse Clarice, could we?*

"Just stay behind me." he told the mechanic as the elevator stopped. *No, we couldn't. Just hope it doesn't cost a chance to find Anna.*

A small part of him HAD wished they had refused Clarice. But, without Martin to hold them together, Clarice's group would fall apart and most would be killed. If he let those innocent people die just to try and find Anna, he was not a worthy father for her.

He exited the elevator with the Tommy Gun at the ready. The corridor was dimly lit. He glanced up and could see that someone had broken many of the lights. He advanced slowly down the corridor passing two spheres that looked like someone had been working on. This place was much like the lower level of the other building. Concrete, bare metal, little if any decoration other than the statues holding the lights.

*It was well lit when I was here. Why would someone break the lights?*

*Someone who doesn't like bright lights?*

*Very funny. No, you could be right. ADAM mutations could cause light sensitivity.*

*Though Ryan's people killed all the prisoners.*

*True. They might have been broken during the fighting.*

The corridor took a turn to the right and opened out onto the massive repair bay. As in the corridor, many of the lights had been broken but enough light came in from the windows to see by. The passed stacks of crates and abandon tool as they advanced. He went to railing and carefully looked down at the repair area and the spheres that still sat there.

*Huh. Thought it might look a little different now since I'm seeing it through your eyes Booker, but it looks the same. And there's my girl.* She had a please expression on her face.

*You're what?* Her girl?

*The Stingray, the bright red bathysphere. I used the CO2 scrubber from it to fix Suchong's Lutece Device. She's fast and it can stay out for 90 minutes. Wish we could take it.*

Nice to see she had developed a new interest since she came to Rapture.

They took a left and he noticed a few signs of combat. Not many though. The stairs leading down were just ahead.

*When we get dropped off here, could we use one of these to get to Rapture if we have to?*

*Not sure if any of these are useable. Maybe Sylvester knows.*

By now they were on the main floor in front of the double doors that led to the work shop and parts storage. Booker made sure that Sylvester was safely out of the way, got Bypass ready and triggered the door.

Turned out he needn't have bothered. The turret covering the door had been destroyed. He advanced further into the room and found two other destroyed turrets. Gunfire from the look of it. He motioned the mechanic that it was safe.

Sylvester headed straight for the shelves that held various parts and searched out what he needed.

*Don't bother scavenging this place. I cleaned it out when I was here. The safe upstairs has an upgrade for Possession though.*

He went over to Sylvester, who was double checking something under one of the few remaining lights. "You ok? I want to look around." he asked the man softly.

Engrossed in his task he waved Booker off.

*Wait a moment. Can we look in the side office?*

He walked over to it, but didn't see anything.

*One of Atlas's radios was here on the desk. It's gone now.*

*Ryan's people probably have it.*

They went upstairs and Elizabeth directed him to the safe with the Possession upgrade. It was closed, but not locked. They opened it and got a surprise. The upgrade was gone and in its place was an Infusion, two silver bars and a large red money purse.

*Booker, this doesn't make any sense. Why would someone take the upgrade and leave all this here?*

*Don't know.* As he picked up the change purse it felt wrong to him. No, not wrong, familiar. Familiar in a way that shouldn't be possible. He opened it up and took a coin out.

It was a Silver Eagle, a *Columbian* Silver Eagle.

*How did... The Lutece Device! Someone must be using it to steal from Columbia.* She actually seemed a little insulted.

He looked closely at the Infusion and silver bars. The silver had the Columbia Star and Shield "mark" on it and the Infusion had the Lutece "L" on it, not the "R" for Ryan like the others they had found in Rapture.

"What's this doing down here though?" He murmured.

*Hiding it maybe?*

"Someone making a little money on the side I bet. Best be going."

*I wonder what else they got from Columbia? Or if they started looking into other time periods.*

"Think they may be acting like Fink?"

*Yes.* She was clearly very concerned. *Imagine a Patriot built with Rapture's technology. Or a Handyman.*

"A handful of Handymen like that could take on a small army. And win." That was something to be very worried about.

"Hey, you say sumthing?" Sylvester asked as he walked up.

"Sorry, thinking out loud. Got everything?"

"Yep, all set to go." the mechanic smiled and patted the large tool box he carried.

"Do you know if any of these sphere's down here work?"

The mechanic seemed slightly surprised by the question. "The Stingray should be ready to go. Just finished a check up on it when Ryan shut this place down. A Swordfish was waiting to be picked up, but it's not here now. The rest of these would need work."

"I might have to use that Stingray to get out of here. Could you look at it a minute? "

"Guess I could if it's important. Not plannin' to use it now are you?"

"No" he smiled at the man. "Need to come back here to look for something. And it's *very* important."

"Need to get up to the control room and get 'er down to floor level."

They walked up to the control room, Booker going ahead to make sure it was safe while a message played over the loudspeakers.

_Hey there, fellas! You know that nine out of ten ladies prefer the athletic man? Why stay on the sidelines when the new SportBoost line of Plasmids can turn you into the jock you've always wanted to be? _

_Come and visit us at the Med Plaza for a free two-hour trial. You'll appreciate the difference, she will too._

"Didn't miss hearin' all those stupid things." Sylvester muttered.

When they got there, Sylvester hit a few controls and pulled a large lever in the middle of the console. Through the large window they watched as the cradle holding the Stingray sank.

*I didn't know it could do that. Would have saved me the effort of using the Air Grabber to get up there.*

Sylvester took a moment and gave him a rundown of how the controls worked so Booker could use the system to move the Stingray to remaining empty dock. Then the mechanic spent a couple of minutes looking over the bright red craft and called him over was he was done.

"Got one problem. Someone took the CO2 Scrubber and we don't have those in stock. Had to special order 'em. Unless ya can hold your breath for ten or fifteen minutes..." he shook his head.

*One of the sphere's near the elevator is a Humpback. It should have an oxygen tank in it.*

"Is there an oxygen tank or something else that could be used?"

"Yeah, an O2 tank would work. Got a couple in storage and the Humpback should have one. Can take a look when we go back."

"Let's go then. Don't have anything else to do down here."

As they walked back the elevator he and Elizabeth talked. She said that Columbia should still be in the midst of the Vox Rebellion. A perfect time to steal things unnoticed. While this was going on the Columbia era Booker was off talking to the Old Elizabeth in 1983 and that she was in Comstock House.

He distracted her from remembering too much about Comstock House by asking what Ryan would do with all the stolen technology. She said that Rapture was isolationist, at least under Ryan. But with the stolen technology Ryan would certainly beat Atlas and the enslavement of the Little Sisters would never end. Fortunately, the Lutece Device had been working again for only about a month and could only have been used to steal so much.

He thought a moment. *Columbia and Rapture both have civil wars. Might be a Constant like the Lighthouse.*

*Probably. I hope it's not a Constant that we're involved in them.*

*Hope you're right.* The Vox Rebellion in Columbia had been enough for him.

_Rumor is the tool of the Parasite. Fontaine is dead; Rapture lives._

When they got near the elevator Sylvester headed to the sphere closest to it and pulled out an oxygen tank and a mask of some sort. He looked at the mask and checked the tank.

"All good. Should be safe here until you need it."

"Thanks." Booker told him.

Minutes later they were back in Fontaine's extravagant bathysphere station. Sylvester made a bee line for the Whale Shark and Booker took some time to look more closely at the crates and supplies. Mixed among the construction materials was scientific equipment, canned food, boxes of linen and even light blankets.

"Don't really get this. Ryan's building something, but what?"

*They're probably doing the research on what they pull through the tears here, safe from Atlas. So that explains the equipment. But linen?*

"Maybe building sleeping quarters so the scientists could live here."

*Would save a trip back and forth to Rapture.* She didn't seem convinced that was the answer though.

"Humph. Audio Diary from Ryan himself."

*Wonder why it's down here?*

_Andrew Ryan: Project Transfer _

_January 11, 1959_

_Dr. Suchong, while I find this proposed project... distasteful, I do see that it is necessary. Atlas and his bandits cannot not be allowed to conquer Rapture. However, do to Tenenbaum's betrayal, I believe that your talents are best used in doing further Plasmid research. Therefor control of the project is being transferred to Dr. Kitano Ryoich. _

_You, of course will continue to be involved with the project in a consulting role. Maintenance and further development of this "device" will continue to be your responsibility. _

*Ryan must be talking about the Lutece Device. I guess Suchong did a proper repair job on it before the Big Daddy killed him.*

"Whatever this project is, Ryan's put a lot of money into it. Could any of this have something to do with Anna?"

*Ryan's stealing technology. I don't see how Anna could be connected.*

"Ever hear of this Dr. Ryoich?"

"No. Sounds like a Japanese name though."

"Humph, bout the only thing I can remember about Japan is that they will beat the Russians in a war in a few years ago."

Elizabeth gave a short laugh.

"What's so funny?"

*You just used future tense and past tense about the same thing.*

"So?" 'What is she talking about?'

*Booker, you understand something many of the brightest physicists in the world don't grasp.*

"No idea what you're talking about."

*That's what makes it funny.*

Mentally he shook his head. Well, she happy about it, whatever it was.

Booker moved on to another pile of crates and found a box with "Ammunition" on the label. When he looked inside he found twelve rounds of .38 pistol ammo. Something seemed off about them. He picked up one for a closer look.

*Those look a bit odd. Some kind of experimental round?*

He rummaged around in the crate a moment before he found the invoice.

*Armor Piercing Ammo?*

"Would have been nice to have had these in Columbia." Now he almost had wished he had taken one of those revolvers, even if it was just to see what this ammo could do.

*Hmm. That may be why someone sent them here. If Ryan's people are raiding Columbia, they may be worried about Turrets and Mosquitos.*

"Or Patriots and Handymen."

They spent another few minutes looking over the crates but didn't find anything of interest other than an Automatic Hack Tool. Just as they finished, Bishop walked over.

"Hey Booker! The sphere is done. We're ready to go."

*Time to finish our prison break.*

End Chapter 16

(1) Booker is ahead of his time in figuring this out because of Comstock's memories. Despite what you see on TV and in movies, torture is a really bad way to try and get information.


	17. Chapter 17

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 17

-Elizabeth-

The trip back down to the prison took longer than the trip up and it the fault of the Whale Shark. While the Whale could carry more people, it was also slower than the other spheres. A trade off they would have to live with. As they traveled they kept the Department Store building between their little flotilla and the city as best they could. A single bathysphere would be easy to overlook. A group of them would not.

She and Booker didn't speak much as they went back. The thought of having to leave Clarice behind in the prison didn't sit well with either of them and the potential confrontation with Martin was not something to be looked forward to either.

Soon the sphere docked and Booker stepped out onto the dock. Sylvester was behind him still carrying his toolbox. A number of Clarice's people where in the Bay already, one of them, Mary came up to Booker.

"Is there a problem?" he asked her as she got close.

"The Boss said that I should come get you the moment you arrived. Something happening at the doors." Mary told him. "Don't know anything more."

Booker headed for the lobby at a slow run. *Did a splicer figure out we're leaving?*

"Possible." he said softly.

She hoped that the splicers hadn't realized what was going on. They would surely try to take the spheres. She didn't like leaving them down here, but they were unstable and many were violent.

Booker entered the lobby and headed directly towards where Clarice and Martin stood talking. She was getting the bad feeling Martin was planning on staying. They stopped talking when they saw Booker approaching.

"What's going on?"

Martin answered. "There's a splicer hanging around by the doors. He's asking to see the "Big guy in the new suit". Drawing attention."

"What's he look like?"

"Brown pants, vest, has a bandage on his head."

"Think I know who it is. Better go talk to him."

They headed for Suchong's lab and the double doors. *Why do you think he wants to talk to you?*

"No idea. If anyone was going pick up something going on, he would be one."

*A people watcher. Hope no one else noticed.*

*I noticed Rafael and his wife was down there. A couple of other people I didn't recognize.*

"One of them worked for Witherspoon. Guess she quit."

*I can't imagine why.* she asked in a mock shocked tone.

Shortly they walked through the double doors and out into the Mall. The splicer that had spoken to them the first day was standing a short distance away. Still had the blue cloth tied to his head. He smiled, but seemed a bit embarrassed.

"You looking for me?" Booker asked him cautiously.

"Yeah I was. Sorry, if caused any trouble. I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"Can't promise anything."

He dropped his voice down. "Listen, I know what's going on. No, not going to tell anyone." The splicer shook his head. "A couple of us, we still got a few of our marbles still left." He looked down. "We know we aren't gonna leave here. Not fit company and Rapture's gone to hell. But you, you might make it."

The splicers right hand grabbed for the club that hung and his belt, but was stopped by his left one. "Stop That! Sorry. If you could, could you mail some letters for us?" He pulled several letters from his vest with his left hand and handed them to Booker.

Booker looked at them for a moment. The addresses were for Philadelphia, Dublin and some place in Brazil. "Why give these to me?"

A ghost of a smile crossed the splicer's face. "When I was in the war, met some guys, go through hell and back if they had to. You got the same look about ya."

"As I said, can't promise anything."

"Don't need to." The splicer gave a crooked smile. "Know it's a longshot, but it's the only thing we got. Thank you. Been the first nice thing someone has done for us quite awhile." He smiled and walked away.

Booker took a moment to look around the mall. "You want to see anything? It's your last chance." He didn't sound overly serious.

*Hell no. Let's get out of here, Booker.*

They turned around and headed back towards Suchong's lab.

*I wonder what those letters say?*

Booker signed. "Probably things like 'I'm sorry', 'I was wrong' and 'I miss you'."

*Things we would have written if given the chance.*

"We got lucky." He gave a short laugh. "We got a 'Do Over'." Why did he think that was funny?

She sighed inside. He and Anna got the 'Do Over' and she was forever grateful for that. Something good had come from all that they had gone through. Her current situation would allow her say goodbye when the time comes at least. That was much more than those they would be leaving behind would have the chance to do.

Shortly there back in the lobby and the first thing they noticed was that the guards were no longer there. Then Booker looked over to the left and noticed that one of the doors was covered by a thick coating of ice.

*Guess they won't be going anywhere for a little while.*

Almost all of Clarice's people had left already for the sphere station and freedom. Martin was talking to Sam and Mary. Clarice was off to one side and caught Bookers' eye. She softly shook her head softly tell them that Martin was refusing to leave.

"Damn* they said as one.

Booker paused and she knew has retrieving the syringe from the crossbow bolt from this vest pocket. He glanced down as he carefully as he hid it up his left sleeve and walked up to the group as Martin spoke.

"…stay a few more days. Mary and Sam can run things no problem for that long."

"And how are getting out?" Sam demanded. "Ryan's not going to let you walk outta here."

"You can hide a sphere in the dock Suchong used."

*You know, Booker that has a chance of working.*

*How big a chance.*

*I figure about one in a million.*

*That high?*

Booker approached the group and Sam noticed him. "Booker, you mind talking some sense into this guy?" pointing at Martin.

"What's the problem?" Booker asked. He was playing dumb.

Mary looked irritated. "He wants to say down here a few more days."

"Bad enough the Boss can't come, but stay'in is goin' to get him killed."

Booker sighed convincingly. "Already tried. If he wants to stay, not much we can do about it."

He went up to Martin and stuck out his hand. Behind Martin, Clarice watched with a concerned expression. "Guess this is goodbye. I got business at the other store so won't be seeing you again."

Martin reluctantly shook his hand. "Sorry to see you go, you're handy to have around."

Booker tightened his grip and the man's hand, all but immobilizing the right arm. An instant later Booker used his free left hand to inject the contents of the syringe into trapped arm.

Martin looked shocked for a moment, then started to go limp. "Sorry." Booker said apologetically grabbed the other man to prevent him from hitting the floor.

"Booker! What the hell!" Sam roared and reached for his gun.

"HOLD!" commanded Clarice freezing Sam in his tracks. "It is all right Samuel. Mr. DeWitt is acting upon a request I made of him. Martin is unharmed." She turned to Booker. "How long before he awakes?"

*Twenty minutes to half an hour.*

"Twenty minutes. Maybe a little longer." He didn't sound all that happy. She knew exactly how he felt.

"Then you had better not linger." She pulled several envelopes from inside her coat and gave them to Mary, who looked slightly dumbfounded by the turn of events. "Please give these to Martin when he awakes. And I have one last order for you and Samuel. You are not to allow Martin to come back here, for ANY reason. Do you understand?" The tone of her voice left no room for anything but following her orders.

"Yeah, Boss." "Yes, ma'am." The woman smiled a moment. "Thank you. And Thank You Mr. DeWitt. The letter I gave him will explain things. He should hold no grudge against you."

"Now, it is time for you all to leave." She smiled sadly.

Sam and Booker each grabbed an arm and picked the sleeping Martin up, holding him between them. Clarice walked up and raised a gloved hand to the unconscious man's face, but was too afraid to touch him.

"Goodbye Martin." She said very softly. And to the rest of them "Fair well."

"Take care of yourself" Booker told her. "By Boss" "Goodbye" the others said.

Booker glanced over his shoulder at the woman just before they went out of sight. She stood silently, watching them go.

*Goodbye Clarice.* She felt a little silly for saying goodbye to someone who would never hear her or even knew she existed, but it felt like the right thing to do.

Sam and Booker carried Martin to the bathysphere station with Mary following them. There were two spheres still docked when they arrived.

Sylvester was standing in front of one of them. "Bout time. Hey, what happened to him?" indicating Martin.

Mary answered. "Had a little accident. He'll be ok."

The mechanic looked like he didn't believe it, then shrugged. "Booker, you're with us in this one. The rest of you, over there." He flicked his left hand in the direction of the other sphere.

They carefully loaded Martin into the sphere, telling Mary and Sam to take care of Martin and bid everyone goodbye. Sam and Mary's farewells lacked enthusiasm, clearly unhappy with what Booker had done to Martin.

Booker went to the other sphere and sat down next to Sylvester. She didn't recognize the other four people with them. At Booker's feet was a leather shoulder bag. It took a moment for her to realize that it was the one the guards had taken from Booker days ago. The door closed and the sphere began its journey.

*We didn't have a choice Booker.*

*Right, no choice. Only way to save him.*

*That's right.*

He was quite for a short time. *We trying to convince each other, or ourselves?*

*I… A little of both, I guess.* she admitted sadly. Leaving Martin behind was totally wrong. He would have been killed by Ryan. But knocking him out and dragging him away from Clarice's side, even if Clarice had been the one to ask for it, wasn't right either.

Damn this city.

Sylvester nudged Booker. "Goin' ta see what's inside?"

"Hm? Oh. Sorry." *What's done is done. We need to concentrate on finding Anna now.*

Booker reached down and picked the up the bag to look. Booker made a soft "Huh" sound when he saw what . Inside was a stack of money and some canned rations.

*Wasn't all the serious about the money.*

*Was nice of them though.*

He sighed slightly. *Probably regretting it now.*

They didn't talk for most of the trip back up. Just watched the fish and rocks go by.

As they got near Fontaine's Department Store, Sylvester turned to them. "Sorry, can't drop you off at the Maintenance Bay. Spheres set for the Main Bay only. Sorry."

"Can live with it."

A short time later the sphere docked and Booker looked out.

'Why was it so dark?'

–Booker–

Even before the door opened he knew something was wrong. It was a lot darker now than it had been before. Most of the lights had been destroyed. The huge chandeliers had either been smashed or sat in ruins on the floor. The few lights that still burned futilely tried to illuminate the cavernous room, but they only made it seem eerie and dangerous. He quickly exited the sphere, drawing his pistol as he did so. Then told Sylvester to get going.

"Hey, you sure?" Sylvester asked.

"I'll be fine. Now get outta here. Go!"

"Luck." the mechanic called and moments later the sphere sank from sight to finish its journey to Rapture.

*Yeah, someone does Not like bright lights.* Elizabeth admitted.

*Hope whoever it is, isn't looking for a fight.*

*You really think there is much chance of that?*

"No, but can hope, can't I? Want to check on Alex or the guards first?" he whispered.

*Alex first. He would be more willing to talk.*

They moved as quietly as they could towards the café were they had left Alex. Wasn't easy, as broken crystal and glass was everywhere. They stayed in the shadows and behind the stacks of crates as much as they could. As they got close, he took a moment to look at a destroyed wall mounted lamp. There was something imbedded in it. For some reason his face was itching.

*Is that some sort of hook? I don't remember seeing anything quite like it before.*

"You wouldn't. Columbia didn't have fish. That hook is used for "hooking" and gutting fish. Don't know why someone would use it on a light."

*I think we better check on Alex, quickly.*

"Yeah." He was getting a sinking feeling in his stomach about all this. He put away the pistol and got out the shotgun. Better in a closed space. They carefully went into the back area were Alex was.

One end of the handcuff was still one pipe, the other still locked around to the guard's wrist. But there was no arm attached to the wrist. Then he caught a glimpse of remained of Alex on the floor.

"Shit." *Oh my God.*

Booker quickly turned away. Not only to prevent Elizabeth from having to see it, but so he wouldn't see it either. He had never seen anything like that in his life.

He quickly walked to the front of the café to catch his breath.

"You ok Elizabeth?" He knew she had seen some horrible things, but this made what had happened to Chen Lin pale in comparison. Alex may have been a lot of things, but he hadn't deserved that.

"Elizabeth?"

*I, I'm ok.* She certainly didn't sound that way and she was even paler than before. *Booker! The other guards!*

"Dammit!" He took off at a run for the Rest Rooms where the other guards were imprisoned, not caring how much noise he made. He stopped when he got to the door but, didn't open it. Something was wrong with the carpet. He could feel it as he stepped on it.

*Booker?*

"No use lookin' Elizabeth." he said quietly. Then he looked down to show her why. Even in the dim light, the carpet in front of the door was no longer green, but red.

They took a step back to where the carpet was clean.

*Splicer.*

"What?"

*A splicer did this.* She sounded both sick and a little angry.

"ADAM sickness can make some do this?" Could he do something like this if got sick?

*I don't know much about it. My guess would be that ADAM sickness effects everyone a little differently. I never heard much in Rapture about things like this. Not until I went to Fontaine's.*

"And there is no cure."

Elizabeth hesitated a moment. *No, not that I know of.* He would rather die than become something that could do That. And Elizabeth, she would be forced to watch. Couldn't let that happen. What would happen to Anna?

He started towards the elevator. "The only thing I can do to keep control is to take more ADAM, right?"

*Yes. That's why Witherspoon stayed sane.*

"Have to be enough." He wasn't so sure though. The Firemen and Crows in Columbia should have had enough ADAM, but they hadn't seemed very sane.

_Atlas is a friend of the Parasite. Don't be a friend of Atlas._

*Going to the Maintenance Bay?*

"Yeah, going to get things set it up to get out of here in a hurry."

They stepped into the elevator and he hit the "Down" button.

"You think a prisoner did that?" he asked.

*Yes. Whoever it was must have hidden somewhere in the store when Ryan's people attacked. It's a big place.*

"And they attacked when the guards were helpless. Should have left someone here."

*And whoever you left might be just as dead as the guards.*

"Yeah, maybe." Moments later the elevator door opened and they stepped out. After picking up the air tank and mask from the Humpback, they carefully made their way to the Control Room.

*That crane is noisy. If anyone is around, they're going to hear it.*

"Figures."

He hit the controls as Sylvester had told him and the automated system picked up the Stingray and safely deposited in the docking station. It took several minutes and even in the control room the crane could easily be heard.

"It is loud, isn't it?"

*If we got lucky, no one was near enough to hear that.*

"And we get lucky all the time, don't we?"

He looked around the Control Room area for a moment to see if something else had stashed there, but didn't find anything. Then he went down the steps to parts storage and the destroyed turrets.

As they walked across the bay floor there was a sound from the ceiling.

It was a clanking sound.

They looked up, but couldn't see anything in the shadows above them. The sound stopped and it was quite for a minute.

Then another sound. Laughing? Then quiet again.

"Elizabeth? Do you know why there is something crawling on the ceiling?"

*I.. It must be a Spider Splicer.*

"And what is a Spider Splicer?" A little more information would *really* help right now.

*I don't really know much. Just that they can crawl and floors and ceiling.* She had a frustrated expression on her face. She didn't like not having an answer any more than he did.

Suddenly the clanking sound came from pillar to the right of them up near the top. Twenty feet from where he thought the earlier sounds came from. He shifted position to cover both locations. Two of them?

It was quite for a short time. He thought he saw a flash of movement near the pillar and the clanking sound came from near the top of the pillar behind him. He backed up as fast as he could so he could cover all three areas. But he concentrated on the last location. No way there were three of them.

'It's playing with me.' He was sure it was what butchered the helpless guards. This splicer was no longer a person anymore, but an inhuman thing.

The warped laugh again. Then... singing?

"AaaaLl the littLe piggyS commme oUt to pLay. AaaalL the lIttle piggIES sQueal awaAay!" It was a male voice, but high pitched. Unsteady.

*Booker, I don't think talking is going to do any good.* She was nervous, almost frightened. Couldn't say his own nerves were that good at the moment either. Position exposed, need to change. Upper level too far, also exposed. Sky-Hook up to a statue? Better for evasion or surprise. Back through door. Confined space, low ceiling, enemy mobility reduced.

He backed up towards the double door that led to the parts storage area. Something small and fast come out of the darkness. He sidestepped just in time and it whirled past him slamming into the door with a metallic THUNK. He glanced quickly at the door. As he thought, it was a hook just like the one in the light upstairs. With the hook imbedded in the door, it probably wasn't going to be able to open.

"Hee, HO! nO little pigGy. It's tIme toPLay!" There was clanking from different areas on the ceiling.

*I think he's jumping back and forth up there.*

Three more hooks came flying at him out of the darkness. The first two missed, but the last one hit him full on, but failed to penetrate his shield.

"WhY piggY not SquEal? aLl pIggys sQueal in playTime!"

Shooting blindly would do not good. Need a target. Need light. Light?

"BaD piggy!"

*Booker! The Devil's Kiss!*

He brought up the plasmid and held the bomb in his hand a moment. He needed the splicer near a pillar for this to work. A hook came spinning out of the darkness and barely missed him. Then he saw a flash of movement to the left pillar.

He tossed the bomb and it hit the ceiling just short of the pillar. It fell down, landing on the statue before detonating.

The splicer hanging from the ceiling screamed in pain. It had been caught at the edge of the explosion, but he thought that was not what really hurt the splicer. It had been the bright light. It wore blood stained blue pants and the remains of a rust colored shirt. As soon he could see the splicer he fired Possession at it. Before it could hit, the splicer jumped away to land on the upper level near the entrance, but the Green Fairy followed, striking as the splicer landed.

*That wasn't exactly what I was thinking of on how to use the Devil's Kiss.*

He unlimbered the machine gun and ran towards the possessed splicer. "Going to kill that thing."

*Booker, he's helpless. Can't you knock him out?*

"No! Not after what it did!" He was not going to let that thing live a moment longer than he had to.

*Booker!*

He ran up the stairs to the upper level and realized the splicer was only slowly walking towards them, they usually ran. He was about twenty feet away when the splicer screamed and broke free of the Possession.

"MakE-piggy-SQuaeL!" it screamed as it threw two more hooks at him. He dodged one, but not the other. He fired off a bust from the Tommy Gun, but missed as the splicer jumped to one side with blinding speed.

He tracked the splicer and his next burst hit it, but took a hit from another hook. Then the splicer jumped directly at him screaming "PIGGY!"

He tried to back up, but was too slow. The slash from the splicer broke his Shield and cut flesh.

He tried tossing a fire bomb at the splicer, but it jumped out of way before it detonated. Almost out of EVE.

He fired at the splicer who took half a dozen rounds before jumping away. He fired several more bursts as the splicer jumped between the ceiling and the floor, but only got a few more hits. This thing was fast and tough! And it wouldn't stop saying things like "piggy squeal".

One more burst and the machine gun was out of ammo. No time to reload. Shotgun.

Sensing an opportunity, the splicer jumped at Booker as he backed up. His Shield had not regenerated yet and he took a damaging slash. But the splicer paid for it when the Booker's "Shock Therapy" Gear activated and a massive jolt of electricity slammed into the splicer. The splicer couldn't move for several moments.

He put the muzzle of the shotgun only a foot from the splicer's head and pulled the trigger. Then pulled it two more times to make sure it was dead.

He backed away from the body while using a First Aid Kit. Then put his back to the wall as he reloaded.

"Elizabeth. Why did want that thing to live? A rabid animal like that! " What was wrong with her?

*I didn't. I didn't want you to kill someone that couldn't fight back, for Your sake, not his.* He didn't have look to know the depth of her concern. He felt ashamed for getting mad at her.

"I… see what you're saying. Sorry."

He looked at the dead splicer and realized that what he thought was a rust colored shirt had actually been dried blood. Numerous ADAM scars covered his body and there was some kind of bloated growth was on his left arm. Nothing to be looted from the corpse and even if there had been anything, he wasn't sure he would have taken it.

Best to be away from that thing.

"Any idea why the Possession didn't last longer?"

*I think it's due to all the ADAM the splicers here use. In Columbia the Crows and Firemen didn't seem to be as effected as normal people. The Frosties here are totally immune to Possession.*

"That's... just great." 'How many bodies am I going to leave behind me this time?'

He walked back down to the bay floor and went to the Stingray. He climbed inside and rested a few minutes as he looked over the controls.

"Looks easy enough."

*For you maybe. Most people have to read the instruction manual.*

"Don't see one. Any ideas on how we can keep someone else from taking this?"

*The keys are to the right of the wheel.*

"Oh, thanks."

He put the airtank out of sight behind one of the seats, stepped out of the sphere and closed the door behind him. Then he walked back up the stairs towards the Circus of Values near the Control Room.

-Elizabeth-

She was a little worried about Booker. He was hurting inside. She liked him being able to care about people and didn't want him to go back to the way he had been in Columbia. But caring more meant being hurt more.

Just before they got to the double doors noticed the cabinet was different and asked Booker to take a closer look.

*When I was here before, that was locked up tight. Looks like someone tried to open it.* she explained

A small pry bar was wedged under one of the doors. With a little difficulty, he pulled it free.

"Whoever tried to pry this open didn't know what they were doing. Need to go for the hinges."

*You know how to break into cabinets, but not pick a lock?* Part of her still couldn't believe he hadn't learned to pick locks.

"Well, yeah. Guess I got used to just breaking things the last time around."

*Even doors?*

*On occasion. Course those doors weren't has well made as the ones in Columbia. Weren't metal either.*

A short time later he had broken the hinges and removed the doors. Inside was a bottle of EVE, a First Aid Kit, some electronics and papers with technical designs. Elizabeth asked to take a closer look at them.

*I think these are U-Invent plans for incendiary ammo for a large caliber pistol like yours. Looks like someone had a side project they were working on. If you plug that circuit board, the blue one, into a U-Invent, you should be able to produce these rounds. With the proper materials of course.*

"And those are?

*Unused pistol casings, kerosene, glue and brass. Could prove useful if you want to set a fire and don't want to use a plasmid.*

"Or I could just use a match."

*Yeah.* She paused a moment.*All these wonders and what do they do with them? Make it easier to light a cigarette and kill each other.*

"Always been that way." He said with a hint of sadness as they walked to the Circus machine.

*Not like down here Booker. Remember, charity is a dirty word to these people and greed is admired. I think that's the main reason Clarice figured out you're not from Rapture. You weren't self-serving enough.*

He hit the Circus machine with the Bypass Plasmid and purchased a health kit, coffee and some more shotgun rounds. There were no Tommy Gun rounds in this one.

"So my clothes didn't have anything to do with it?" He sounded a little annoyed.

*I didn't say that. Your old clothes just gave her more evidence.*

"Still think it was just an excuse to get me to dress different." he accused.

*Maybe.* She couldn't help from sounding pleased with herself.

"Humph. Now that I have new clothes and if I act like I did when I first went to Columbia, I would fit in better?" He didn't seem to like that notion much.

*I like you the way you are now Booker. I think the best thing you can do is to avoid spending too much time around other people.*

"I guess." He filled up his EVE with the bottle from the cabinet and started to walk to the elevator.

*You know, that Gear probably saved your life. You need to get some other ones.*

"You know where there's more Gear?"

*Yes... Comstock had some.*

*Taking something from Comstock *isn't* going to bother me Elizabeth. Wait, didn't you say that was where you died the first time?*

*Yes. Not very feet away.*

"You sure you want to go back? I..."

*It's ok Booker. I saw my body once already and I've gotten use to the idea of being dead. It's much more important that you get those Gear and stay alive, so don't argue with me.*

_The Little Sister's Orphanage: In troubled times, give your little girl the life that she deserves. Boarding and education free of charge! After all, children ARE the future of Rapture._

"How long is this going to take?" he relented grumpily.

*Should only take fifteen minutes or twenty minutes.*

"Ok." he said as he hit the button to open the elevator door. "We get the Gear and then we find Anna. *Just don't get too use to thinking you're dead.*

End Chapter 17


	18. Chapter 18

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 18

-Elizabeth-

The elevator door opened and Booker stepped out into Bathysphere Deluxe. There had some since she had been here last. Several desks had been moved near to the elevator doors and all advertisements had been taken down. A partially installed security camera lay on the floor. Fortunately, no one seemed to be around.

Booker walked up to the closest desk and looked at the papers on it. "Sign in sheet. This is a security checkpoint."

*Wonder why no one is here?*

"Maybe this has an answer." Booker said as he picked up an Audio Diary from the other desk. The voice was deep and had a strong Japanese accent.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Security Issues_

_February 19, 1959_

_Mr. Ryan, we have had a number of security problems involving the project. There have been numerous incidents of theft and two laborers have vanished. There have been multiple reports of strange sounds and voices. I expect to acquire the first four specimens for trials within the next week. I fear an incident may occur and the project will be unable to meet its goals unless security is improved. _

*Well, they didn't just abandon this place.*

"Yeah. Ryan's people downstairs didn't seem all that worried about things."

*They would have been informed if there was a real problem, right?*

"Hmph. When secrets are involved, people don't want to tell anything to anyone. Even when they need to know."

They went to the left and looked in the office. The desk surrendered four rounds of shotgun ammo and several dollars. Booker looked around a moment and spotted a rooster.

"Hmm. Looks like people were supposed to be here, but it got changed."

*Nothing more to learn here. Let's get to Toys.*

Booker turned and headed for the exit. "Toys?"

*Yes, Comstock died in the Children's Toys section.*

Booker shook his head ruefully. "Comstock wanted a child, but couldn't have one. And died surrounded by their toys."

They walked out the door and down the steps to the exit. Booker took a moment to look the huge space before him. "Fancy." Most of the advertisements were gone, but the bathyspheres were still in the glass tubes and the neon lights for most of the businesses were still lit. "How do we get to the Toy's section?"

*Over to the right.*

_We all move the Great Chain, and the Great Chain moves us all._

They headed off to the right but they didn't get far before they came to the former "Food" counter. Atlas's signs had been taken down and the food was gone. The moment she saw it, she got the same feeling she had in the office in the other building where the Infusion had been hidden in the filing cabinet.

*Booker, can we look around a moment in there?*

"Just about to ask actually."

They checked around the front count but only found a discarded wallet with twenty dollars in it. Around back they found 40 rounds of Tommy Gun ammo, some bandages and a thermos of coffee. Atlas's radio had been taken away and in its place where some parts and another Automatic Hack Tool. The safe was still there and was open. Inside was a Plasmid Upgrade.

"That's something I can use." She could hear the smile in his voice.

*What is it?*

"Bypass Upgrade. Makes the Bypass's effects permanent." Booker told her as he used the upgrade.

*Guess Suchong was able to finish development before he died. I wonder who put it there?*

"Don't care, just glad to find it. Time to get going."

The left the food counter and walked past stairs leading to the Manta Ray club and the elevator to Fontaine's office. He took a brief side detour to the Circus of Values to test out the Plasmid.

"Let's see if that's still bypassed when we get back."

*Don't trust it?*

"Best to be sure."

Then he down the corridor past the spot where she had first encountered the Atlas supporter singing a protest song. The poor fool was certainly dead now. Booker went to the elevator and hit the button to continue to the floor that held Cupid's Arrow and the Ryan the Lion Preparatory Academy. The door opened and they found themselves confronted by a turret sitting in front of the model of the Fontaine Department Store buildings. The turret activated and swung its gun barrel towards them.

Before it fired, Booker hit the turret with the Bypass and it shift back to its neutral state. They walked down the short corridor from the elevator to the room with the model. Before they got there they heard the sound of a Security Camera.

"Lot more security systems in here." Booker observed softly.

*Expect more in the Silver Fin.*

Booker looked around the corner and saw the camera on the wall to the right behind the desk. It was pointed away and he fired a Bypass at it. He went to step out, but hesitated and then stepped back out of sight as the camera turned their way.

"If someone is watching that camera, wouldn't they still be able to see me?"

*I think they would. The Bypass would only keep the camera from sounding an alarm.*

_Atlas and his bandits are on the run and Rapture is on the rise._

They waited a moment until the camera turned away again and then they quickly moved to get into the blind spot beneath it. As they waited for the camera, Booker looker over the reception desk and found some glue along with a number of old memos from Suchong Laboratories. Chemicals, standard medical equipment, a cage with a combination lock, raw ADAM and restraints. He noticed a patch on the large window on the other side of the model.

When the camera turned away, they headed through the heavy Securis door and into the foyer that contained the entrance to some place called Cupid's Arrow and Ryan the Lion Preparatory Academy. Elizabeth noted that the controls had been repaired. The door to Cupid's Arrow had been sealed and all the lights were off, but not hard to guess what the nature of business was.

_Ladies, don't let a few wrinkles or crow's feet get between you and the man of your dreams. Whatever the flaw, Dr. Steinman has a solution. Come see him at Aesthetic Ideals in the Medical Pavilion. Dr. Steinman will make a new woman out of you. Guaranteed._

"Anthony Comstock, would have had a fit if he could see that place." Booker observed with an amused tone.

*Anthony Comstock? Who's that?*

"Founder of the so called "New York Society for the Suppression of Vice". Real fanatics against anything they considered "immoral". Even tried to stop medical books from being sent through the mail because they contained nudity."

*You're not kidding, are you?*

"Nope. You know as well as I that some people have to push their beliefs on everyone else."

They walked towards the doors and she told Booker that they had been replaced. They now were wood with frosted glass in windows in them. As they got close the doors opened by themselves to show a small room with another set of doors at the other end. The room was a grey color and the floor had tiles on it and a drain. Odd looking equipment had been attached to the walls in several locations and a monitor was by each door.

They stepped into the small room and the doors slammed shut behind them. A message about "Decontamination in Process" flashed up on the monitor as some kind of mist was sprayed into the room. She had the feeling that Booker was looking to try and smash his way out.

*Don't worry Booker. This decontamination process is harmless. It just kills bacteria, germs and the like.*

"Why here?"

*I have no idea. It wasn't here before.*

After several seconds a tone sounded and the doors on the other side opened. A message on the monitor declared "Decontamination Complete". Booker quickly got out of the Chamber and into the former school.

There were several stacks of crates here now, but little else had changed. Booker walked to the reception desk and looked a moment and found some milk and a sandwich. On the floor was a purse with 36 dollars in it.

They walked in back and found photographs on the desks and even tacked on the walls. Booker took moment to look them over. They were pictures of Columbia. The pictures in the right wall had Handymen. The left wall had some schematics.

*Not good.*

*I don't think it's as bad as it looks. This looks like basic preparatory work. Any good engineer in Rapture could design these systems. Building them and getting them to work with a human being would be the real problem.* Then she noticed the sign for the Principles Office had been removed and a new one put in its place that read "Department of BioMechanical Synthesis, Dr. Bruce Devlin." *Booker, the office.*

It hadn't changed much. The empty bottles of Possession where gone and things cleaned up a little but that was all. Papers on the desk looked like they still trying to figure out how to attach mechanical parts to flesh and get them to work. A note scribbled on a piece of paper suggested that they use ADAM to create an interface between man and the machine.

In the desk he found 40 dollars, a pack of cigarette and coffee. *Thought there would be more here.* Booker noticed the trash can and saw an Audio Diary inside it. "There is."

_Yi Suchong: New Subject_

_January 3, 1959_

_Ryan busy with Atlas, not care what Suchong do. Still cannot figure out what stupid man did to get ugly bird to imprint on girl. Not genetic. Must be something with girl. Cannot get girl, stupid bird protect her. But Suchong know where girl come from. Can get other her. Make for interesting subject._

'Bird? Suchong is talking about me and Songbird….Can.. get..*other*.. her?'

*THAT BASTARD! THAT MISBEGOTEN SON OF A BITCH! SUCHONG! HE'S the one that kidnaped Anna! Just so he could figure out his stupid imprinting!*

*Elizabeth! Please! Stop yelling. It's…uncomfortable.* He had both his hands pressing against his temples.

*I'm sorry Booker. It's just that…*

"It's ok, just not so loud, huh?"

Why was he being so calm? *Booker, do you know something? You act like you knew it was Suchong.* She couldn't help the accusatory tone of in her voice. She was still angry.

*Just suspected. Took me over a month recover and find my way here. Time passes at the same rate on both ends of a tear, doesn't it?* That really didn't sound like much of a question.

*Yes, it does. You learned that from Comstock?* It came out much harsher than she wanted to.

"Yeah, only way to get here faster. Let's get going."

He didn't sound at all upset with her and now she felt rotten. She hurt Booker because she couldn't keep her temper under control. She felt like she should go sit in a corner for ten minutes as punishment. Maybe fifteen.

_Approaching a Little Sister is a criminal offense. Do not approach the Little Sisters._

*I'm sorry Booker.*

"To be expected. You have a right to be a bit angry."

She felt even worse now.

They checked the nearby store room and found it had been emptied of everything, even the shelves. They walked through the doors into the kitchen of the small restaurant.

Or what had been the restaurant.

The stoves, freezers and refrigerators had been taken out and a new white tile floor had been laid down. A new plain white wall enclosed the area preventing them from seeing beyond. Where the equipment had been sat beds like those used in a hospital. A pair of solid looking doors across from them was the only other way out.

*This is all new. There used to be a lunch counter here.*

"Guess this is some of that construction work. Reminds me of a hospital."

*I think it is. Why here though?*

"Doin' something they want to stay hidden."

They walked out the doors and into the large open area that used to hold the statue of Ryan and a child. It was gone now and a new floor was in the process of being put down. There were no new walls, but she could see where they were going to be built. In the center of soon to be built room was a large circular metal table with heavy clamps. Further over was a very large empty glass tank. The mask hanging inside suggested that it was intended to hold a person.

*This reminds me a little of the Handyman Operating Suite in Columbia.*

"Far from being done though." Booker walked across to the opposite wall. Someone hadn't gotten around to taking down the "Heroes of Rapture" posters yet. "Suchong?" Booker asked.

*Yeah. Seems someone didn't him like much.*

"Can't imagine why." Suchong's poster had a large, very precise red "X" on it and some writing next to it. She thought it might be Japanese.

Booker looked at the other pictures a moment. "Tenebaum. Wish the picture was better. Hardly tell who it is."

*You think we're going to have to find Tenebaum to cure Anna, don't you.*

"Let's say I consider it a possibility. You said she would be the one." Booker's voice was sad with a layer of cold anger beneath it.

Then something hit her. *Anna was in Rapture when I died. What would have happen to her?*

*Nothing happened to me when I killed Comstock. Anna is a strong girl. She'll make it.*

They went through the doors into the class rooms. The tables, chairs and other "teaching tools" had been moved off to one side, but other than that, not much was different.

*You seem so sure. We don't, we don't even know if Anna is still alive." The very thought that Anna could be dead sickened her, but he had to be ready for the worst.

Booker gave a soft chuckle. "One thing I know is that she's alive."

*How can you be so sure?* she couldn't believe he was taking this so lightly.

"Let's say I have confidence in my daughter. This city isn't going to beat her."

He seemed so confident, so sure. She prayed he was right.

-Booker-

Wasn't time yet to tell her yet. Back to business. He looked around, reading some of the sayings on the walls. "This was a class room?" He couldn't believe some of the propaganda.

*Yes. They taught the "Rapture Way" here to children. Disgusting.*

"Peter the Parasite?" *Makes Duke and Dimwit look subtle.*

*Booker, I noticed you're not saying anything about Columbia out loud.*

*Occurred to me that Lutece may not be the only ones that could watch us.*

*You did say that Rapture Security had been watching me and Comstock. You think someone could be watching us know?*

"No, but best be careful."

He spotted a lunch pail and walked over to it and looked inside. A bottle of beer and a slice of pizza. It looked old so he left it all in the lunch pail.

*Booker, that desk along the wall. That wasn't here before and the style is wrong.*

She was right. The desk was a roll top made of dark mahogany and the style would have fit right in with his office back in 1898. They opened the desk and found an Infusion, a few dollars and a box of shotgun ammo with four odd looking shells. He drank the Infusion and looked at the shotgun shells.

*Electric Buck? Must be something new.*

They took a moment to read the label and discover that anything hit by it takes large electrical shock. "Hope we get some more of this. Could act as a replacement for Shock Jockey."

They checked the other desks and found an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Dr. Suchong_

_January 10, 1959_

_I first heard of Suchong during the war. A coward who sold opium to our warriors to save his own skin. I was surprised when I discovered he had come to Rapture. I suppose that he was on the run from the Chinese as I was from the American's and their "Tribunals". Suchong may be intelligent, for a Korean, but he lacks discipline. He is sloppy, erratic and...disorganized. Not to be trusted with anything of importance. Soon he will make a major mistake. And that will allow me to take my rightful place. _

"Nice people."

*It's the Rapture Way.* Elizabeth said with deliberate false cheer. *Sorry, I've had to hear that line for months.*

He humphed and headed for the exit. "How did you survive being around people like that all the time?"

*Most of them aren't as extreme as Ryan is. I spent most of my time reading. Keep interaction to a minimum and you don't really notice that they turn a blind eye to children being turned into slaves to produce ADAM.

*I guess I wasn't much better, using Sally like I did.* she finished sadly.

*But you did do something about it in the end. That's what makes you different from most of these people.* He saw it, even if she didn't. To get Comstock, Elizabeth had put herself into another prison. Explained a few things though.

They passed through two sets of doors and came to a room with a knocked over chair and no other exit.

"Uh, this is a dead end."

*Look up and to the left.*

"Air vent?" He didn't think he could fit there.

*Don't worry. It's bigger than it looks.*

It was high up. He might be able to jump and catch the edge though. He looked at the chair on the floor a moment.

*What?*

"Think someone else has been in this vent." He righted the high backed chair and it was right under the vent.

*There's blood on it.* He looked more carefully on the floor and saw a trail of running back the way they came. Hard to see unless you were looking for it.

_The Parasite has his eye on Rapture. Keep YOUR eye on the Parasite._

He made sure the chair was stable and climbed on top of it. As far as he could tell, the air duct was empty other than cobwebs and a thin trail of long dried blood. He hauled himself up, only barely squeezing through the opening. As Elizabeth had said it was larger on the inside. That didn't mean it was comfortable though and he smelled something that did not smell good.

He crawled down the air duct to the first bend and discovered the source of the blood. A long dead splicer lay curled up ahead of them. From the look of him he was starting to mummify. There was enough room to get around the corpse though. On the other side of the corpse was a Gear and an Audio Diary.

He quickly grabbed the Gear and examined it. The name was Quick-Draw, but the effect was the same as "Quick Handed" from Columbia. It could certainly help in a fight. Next the Audio Diary.

_Niles Murdock: Last Whatever_

_January 1, 1959_

_First time head been clear in a month. ha. Getting hit must have h,h,helped some, somehow. Ryan' s killing everyone. Hid. huff. Har, hard to breath. Think I'm bleed'n inside. Hu. Just came here to start a business. Too.. make something of myself. uh. Supposed to be open m, market. I didn't do anything wrong.. I really...didn't..._

*I was the one that hit him. Didn't want to kill anyone. Lot of good it did.*

"His blood in on Ryan's hands, not yours. Sometimes that's all you can do."

They finished crawling through the ductwork finding nothing else other than water and broken glass. The air duct led to a small storage room with a lift on one side. Elizabeth told him to take it and go up. As the elevator went up she warned him that her body, or her first one, was near the top of the shaft.

The elevator stopped and they stepped out. Booker took a few steps but didn't see anything but a gaping hole in the wall ahead.

*It's not here.* She sounded bit surprised, relived and confused and it showed in her face.

"I noticed that there weren't any bodies around other than the one we just found."

*Ryan's people must have collected all of them. They probably didn't like the idea of a lot of corpses all over the place.*

*Might was well go see if Comstock is there. Maybe they missed him.*

They climbed through the hole and looked around at the ruins of the toy department. The blue tinted light from the window making the room seem cold and empty.

*Doesn't look like much has changed. Comstock's on the upper level. You'll need to use the stairway on the other side of the room.*

It took them several minutes to walk the roundabout path to get to the stairs. They climbed up and Elizabeth noted that the large piece of rubble that had blocked the stairs before been had been pushed aside. Then they walked to large open area with a heating vent on one side.

*Comstock was there, in front of the vent.*

"Nothin' there now. Huh, this looks like the vent the Little Sister in the other building used. "

*Yes, Sally was right there and I walked away.*

_Wanting an item from the surface is forgivable. Buying or smuggling one into Rapture is not. Stay on the level, and out of trouble._

*Both Comstock and Sally are long gone.*

*Sorry to send you on a wild goose chase Booker.*

Something on the floor caught his eye. "Wasn't a totally loss. We have some information and a Gear." 'And maybe something else.' He walked over to the object on the floor and picked it up. *No, not a loss at all.*

What he held in his hand was the broach he had picked for Elizabeth at Battleship Bay in Columbia. The sliver bird seemed to glow in the dim light.

Elizabeth looked down in surprise. *My Broach!" She didn't speak for some moments and when she did, her voice was full of sadness and guilt. "It was the only thing I owned in my entire life that really meant anything to me. I was so bent on getting revenge on Comstock, I never even realized I lost it.*

*What's lost can be found again Elizabeth.* He put the broach in a pocket of his vest.

*You're...going to keep it?*

"Deserves to be someplace better than here. Maybe Anna would like someday."

*No! Please no. Don't give it to her. I don't ever want her to know about me.*

"Why?" Bout time to find out why she's acting the way she is.

*Anna's not me. She's free. She shouldn't be burdened by what I went through, what I've done. Please Booker, don't tell her.*

'So that's it. Going to be harder than I though.' *Ok, I won't tell her. I promise.*

*Thank you.**Time to get to the Silver Fin.* She gave a little half smile.

They heading back the way they came. Down the lift, through the air duct and out Ryan's Prep school. The Bypass mod worked as it was supposed to and the turret took no notice of them when they entered the room. Then an elevator trip.

They exited the elevator and Elizabeth directed him to the right past some place called "Test Drive" and up a flight of stairs. In moments they were standing in front of the door to the Silver Fin.

And the door was closed and shut down tight.

*Damn it. Locked down again.*

"This should help." He said as he got out an Autohack Tool.

*No, it won't.*

She was right. There was some kind of glass shield covering the number lock on the door. He reached for his Sky-Hook. *And don't bother with the Sky-Hook. I think a Handyman would be needed break it. There's another way in through the air ducts.*

"Will I fit?"

*Hope so.* She didn't sound very sure about it. *Go down to the left, there is a maintenance room with the duct I used in it.*

He followed her directions and walked through the doors to see an oversized furnace. *It's on the right wall. Suchong "hid" it with a cabinet when I was here before.* She really seemed to enjoy putting Suchong down. *It gets a wider a little way in. There are some turrets in there, but they shouldn't be a problem.* She sounded almost cheerful now.

The ductwork had been reattached but it only took a moment to remove it. He let it fall to floor with a metallic crash and they looked up at the vent.

"Aw hell." *Oh, no.*

The vent was blocked off by heavy steel bars. The Sky-Hook would barely scratch them. It would take hours to cut through even using heavy equipment. Just yards away from their goal and they had no way to reach it.

"Now what do we do?"

End Chapter 18


	19. Chapter 19

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 19

–Elizabeth–

They stood looking at the air vent blocked by the steel bars. Booker had the Sky-Hook out, but hadn't done anything with it. She could tell he wanted to use it to try and break the bars, but knew it was futile. It might even break the Sky-Hook.

No way in. There HAD to be a way in. There has to be a way past the lockdown. No, not get past it.

Booker took a deep breath and turned away. "Not getting in this way. Can you think of another way?"

*We need to release the lockdown. We do that, we should be able get in.*

"And how do we release this lockdown?"

*I don't know. When I was where before, Suchong could do it from his laboratory in Apollo Square.*

"We have to go to Rapture and find the Apollo Square place?"

*Maybe not. Suchong isn't running this place anymore, Ryoich is.*

"You think that this Ryoich has the controls for the lockdown here."

*Would be stupid to have the only controls back in Rapture. And even if the controls aren't here, there may still be some information on Anna here.*

"Damn." Booker let his breath out. *Where to next.*

*There was a place nearby that Atlas dispensed medicine from. Might be something useful here, then Test Drive and the Manta Ray Lounge.*

They left the maintenance room and she directed to the right and down the stairs. From the stairs it was just a short walk to the former store front that Atlas had used to dispense medicine. The sign has been torn down and when they went inside they found that the supplies Atlas had built up were gone. Booker tired the door to the left, but found it locked from the other side.

*That door wasn't locked last time I was here.* Only reason to lock it would be to restrict access to the other door.

_"It's scientific fact, that a diet rich in fish and sea greens improves cognitive function. Don't you want to be as brilliant as you can possibly be? Visit Neptune's Bounty. Smart for your brain, smart for your wallet." _

Booker took a few steps further into the store, but stopped. They could hear a turret.

"Must be something worthwhile in here." he said softly as the Bypass Plasmid was readied.

Booker stepped from cover and hit the turret before it even saw him.

They searched the counter and found an Air Grabber. Booker looked at a moment then put it back where he found it saying he already had one. The desk turned out to be much more interesting. Small tools were arranged on it along with half a dozen pieces of jewelry. Booker took a look at them as he picked them. They had no gems in them.

"Jewelry tools." He picked up a jewelers loupe and examined the largest piece of jewelry.

*What are you looking for?*

*Jeweler's marks. I have an...ah*

There were marks, some numbers and letters she didn't understand. And one she did. The Star and Shield symbol for Columbia.

*Not overly surprising. Stealing would be easy with a Lutece Device. But why take the gems out? These pieces would be worth more intact.*

*Standard practice for thieves. Hide where you got it from. Would raise questions when people noticed the Columbia mark. They're certainly going to melt the gold down for sale.*

*They're using the jewelry they steal from Columbia to help pay of all this?*

*Be my guess. Rich people like Ryan tend to be cheap.*

Booker picked up the broken snow globe from the desk. *Lighthouse. Looks a bit familiar.*

*When I picked it up I got a nosebleed.*

"You got them?" He sounded a bit worried.

*Yeah. When I came back I was normal. If I ran across certain objects, it would trigger a flash of memory of the future. I became another member of the Nose Bleed Club.*

"Not really a club you want to be a part of." Booker spent a few moments scratching the left side of his face.

They went through the door to back area. Someone had cleaned it up. The medical equipment has gone, but a bottle of Bucking Bronco was in its place. Booker took a close look at it for a few moments.

*What's the matter.*

*Wanted to make sure where this came from. Columbia or Rapture.*

*Guess that is something to pay attention to. Rapture's drinkable Plasmids don't seem to be exactly the same formula as Vigors. An upgrade for a Plasmid may not work for a Vigor.* Or it could malfunction in some way. The Plasmids that worked properly seemed dangerous enough to her.

After Booker drank down the Bronco, they walked over to the desk, but like the other locations they had visited, the radio was long gone. Booker searched and found seven dollars and an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Lack of vision_

_January 19, 1959_

_Another example of the Korean's foolishness. He created Lot 179 the purpose of getting Protectors to Imprint on the Gatherer's in their care. While linking the nervous systems of the subjects is an interesting idea, using it for the purpose of Imprinting was foolish and wasteful. There is much more that could be done with this concept, a way to revolutionize communication. Suchong's inability to see this is of no surprise. _

"Looks like Ryoich thinks big." Booker stood a few moments and seemed to be thinking.

They exited the former store and had taken a few steps before they heard an odd whirling sound. It seemed to come from above them. They retreated back under cover as two flying objects sped past about fifteen feet off the floor. They were grey, had two rotary blades on top to provide lift, several lights and a small machine gun.

*Security Bots.*

The flying Bots failed to spot Booker and were out of sight in moments.

*Reminds me of the Mosquito's in Columbia.*

*They serve the same purpose. These are a lot faster though.*

They waited a short time to make sure the Security Bots had left and headed towards Test Drive. They passed through the doors and found the giant poster advertising "Old Man Winter". Hard not to think of Clarice when she saw it.

"They really seemed to push that stuff." Booker observed in a sour tone.

*Anything for the Rapture Dollar.*

First they checked the office. It looked like they had been in the process of being converted it into a security check point and hadn't been finished yet. There was a bottle of Hop Up Cola and a candy bar on one of the desks. On the other was a memo.

_By Order of Andrew Ryan_

_All staff are to be evacuated from the main project area on B Shift on February , 1959. Anyone found in the project area will be terminated by Ryan Security. _

"Now we know why no one's here. Ryan's security is coming to do another sweep. Probably don't want anyone in the way."

*Seems like Ryoich's complaining did some good. But Ryan's forces could arrive at any time.*

"Still should have enough time to get done what we need and get out of there." He grabbed the few coins sitting on the counter and went down the stairs to the room below. The armored door the splicers had forced open in their attack had been repaired, but opened easily when Booker pushed on it.

Booker walked forward and looked at the room below them. It was totally different than the last time she had seen it. All of Atlas's supplies were gone, replaced by tables and different types of equipment. In the center of the floor was a partially disassembled Minuteman's Armory. They took the stairs down to the lower floor and neither was very surprised to find weapons from Columbia. Several Triple R's, a pair of Broadsider Pistols, a Hailfire and even a Barnstormer RPG. Most of the weapons were in the process of being dissembled.

"Looks like their trying to see if they can learn anything." She noticed that his eyes lingered on a still intact Broadsider for several moments.

*Why don't you take it?*

*The Broadsider? No ammo. Be nice though.*

It took her a moment to realize it. *There's no ammo here at all.*

"Ammunition's probably stored someplace safe. Wouldn't want an accident with and damage all this stuff."

_The Parasite has his eye on Rapture. Keep YOUR eye on the Parasite._

Looking over the other tables they spotted several Gears that were in the process of been taken apart for study. And one Gear that was not. Booker walked over softly saying "Wonder what's in here?"

Turned out to be "Fleet Feet". This would give Booker some needed mobility. That mad Spider Splicer might not have been able to hit Booker if he had this Gear.

They went over to the alcove on their left, but there only seemed to be tools of one sort or another, pieces of metal, clamps and a large red pipe wrench. She wanted SO much to not to have to look at that.

Suddenly it was dark, as if she had closed her eyes. She didn't panic, she could still hear Booker, but she didn't like being blind.

And then she could see again.

'Why didn't I know I could DO that?'

As Booker looked through the tools, she experimented several times with opening and closing her "eyes". It wasn't hard at all, but you had to know you could do it. 'If I can control my vision, can I do the same for hearing?'

Yes! She could control what she saw and heard! She had some control of herself now. To have even a little control again, she couldn't begin to describe it! The only reason she had been able to tolerate it so far was because of Booker.

Booker had finished with the tool and had started walking to the back of the area where she had gotten the Old Man Winter Plasmid.

*Booker! I have some control!*

*Control?* Of course, he had no idea what she was talking about.

*I can control what I see and hear. It's like I can close my eyes or turn off my ears, if I want.*

*I'm glad.* He sounded happy for her. *Now you won't have to listen to me snore if you wake up before I do.*

*Bookeer! I'm going to...* She couldn't pretend to be angry and started laughing.

Booker chuckled a bit and started to look around the back area. Test tubes, chemicals, beakers, chemicals, microscopes and odd looking equipment. Some of the equipment was still running and making odd beeps or other sounds from time to time. Booker looked off to one side and discovered a number of Vigor bottles. Return to Sender, Charge, Murder of Crows and Shock Jockey.

All empty.

He looked at the beakers and the colors of the liquids in them. *As I suspected. They're studying Columbia's Vigors and will probably attempt to copy them or use what they learn for new Plasmids.*

"Not a good thing." Booker said with a sour note in his voice. Suchong called Fink stupid, but

They walked around back and found a number of desks. Booker did a search and came up with a gold watch, a pair of expensive woman's shoes, five dollars and an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Single Donor Recovered ADAM Effects_

_January 27, 1959_

_Research into the so called "ghosts" produced by the use of Recovered ADAM produced interesting results. A large dose from of ADAM from a single donor has had quite striking effects on the two test subjects. Subject One became highly confused as to his identity and confused his past with that of the donor. The Subject Two suffered from the delusion that the donor was still alive and able to speak to them. It is recommended that the ADAM recovered for a large number of donors be combined to eliminate the possibility of ADAM users being effected by such extreme side effects. _

_Both subjects recycled for recovery of ADAM this date. Further tests pending. _

It took her several long moments to digest what she had just heard. That's what she was. Just ADAM memories, put together by Booker's mind. It had been nice to think that she had been alive in some way, even as a ghost. But she wasn't. She was a creation of Booker's mind, just as the "Booker" the real Elizabeth had talked to when she came back to Rapture. It didn't change the most important thing though, she was still going to do as much as she could to help Booker find Anna.

Booker had been talking. *Sorry, I was thinking. What was that again?*

"Said that this Ryoich is a cold one. Talks about killing two people like it was business as usual."

*For him it might be.* Booker seemed to miss the implications of the Audio Diary. Just as well. They needed to find Anna first. Then she would have to have a talk with him.

*You ok Elizabeth?*

*Yes, fine. We need to go to the Manta Ray Lounge now.*

"Then let's go." he said in a determined voice.

-Booker-

Something's wrong with Elizabeth. Damn it! The Audio Diary! She must be thinking she is some sort of ghost in his head created by ADAM. Should have told her even without proof. STUPID! Need that last piece of information more than ever now.

They left Test Drive and came to the Circus of Values he had Bypassed when he had first arrived. The Bypass was still working. "Hmm. I wonder."

*Wonder what?*

*What happens when you use Possession on something already Bypassed?*

*Not sure. I guess you could try it.*

She should be a lot more interested than that. He bought some tea and backed off a step to use the Possession. When it hit, money spilled out of the machine as he expected. He picked up the money and drank the tea. And to test the machine he bought some cola and it seemed to work fine.

_Wallet a little light? At Surgical Savings we'll happily work out an affordable payment plan for any major procedure. Potentially terminal illnesses won't wait until payday. Should you? _

As they headed over to the entrance to the Manta Ray Lounge Booker tried to engage Elizabeth, but she seemed to want to focus only on finding Anna. As they walked up the stairs they could hear a Security Bot on patrol, but it missed them.

At the top of the stairs was an entranceway covered by a Security Camera. The noise it made gave them more than enough warning and it was quickly Bypassed and avoided. They went down a short corridor and into a small lobby with a counter and a cloakroom. Two turrets started up, but only one was able to get off a few shots before it was Bypassed. Booker's Shield easily absorbed the couple of rounds that hit him.

Upon entering the cloakroom they spotted another Audio Diary from Ryoich. "Ryoich seems to like to hear himself talk, doesn't he?"

*If it helps you and Anna I don't mind.* She didn't say "us". Not good. Left side of his face was itching again.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Suchong's Stupidity_

_February 3, 1959 _

_I just discovered another of Suchong's experimental Plasmids. Something that can render the user invisible to automated security systems. He called it "Security Bypass". Such a Plasmid is at best, problematic as we depend a great deal on such systems. The modification to make it permanent is ill advised. The latest discovery of another modification that allows Security Bypass to spread or "Infect" other system a bypassed security system makes contact with. Properly used, a person could make themselves invisible to all security city wide. _

_For the time being this "Infection" modification is in my office. All known examples the base Plasmid have been ordered to be destroyed. _

"That sounds like it would be very useful to have. Any idea where Ryoich might have his office?"

*Fontaine had an office here. Seems like he would be the type to move into it.*

"Where is it?"

*You're already close. There is a private elevator in the back of the Manta Ray that goes directly there.*

"Good."

A quick search of the area turned up some coffee, a pep bar and a can of sardines. Then they headed up the stairs to the club's main entrance. "Don't they have any straight stairs in this place?"

*Not many. Curves are big around here.* It hurt to see the sad, but still determined look on her face.

Two more turrets were waiting for them, but in moments they no longer posed a threat. Elizabeth said this place had seen a large fight when Ryan's security forces had attacked. Couldn't tell now though. A lot of work had been done here recently and was still being done. Cans of paint and drop cloths were over in one corner with a pile of recently removed decorative molding in another, a painters scaffolding was against a wall that was still in the process of being constructed.

Somehow it all gave the impression of a hospital.

They checked behind what Elizabeth told he had originally been a bar. There was a wallet with eighteen dollars, a small ring and a toy bear.

_My daddy is a special daddy, he's sending me to Little Wonders! A place where every girl is a princess. Is your daddy special? Not if he doesn't make you a Little Wonder, he isn't!_

*Odd place for that.*

"The what?"

*The bear. It has a connection to the future, but I can't remember what now.*

"We'll figure it out."

They took the curved stairs off to the left that led down. *This wall is new. You used to be able to look down across a large seating area.*

They got to the bottom and found a heavy set of doors. He thought they looked like they were designed with security in mind. Through the doors, a corridor headed off to the right and to the left, a landing for stairs that went up again. The walls, like those above where plain white and the floor covered with a hexagonal white tiles. "Which way?"

*Not sure. None of this wasn't here before. The corridor should take you towards the back and the elevator.*

A plain sign on the wall by the stairs said "Observation Level".

"I think we should take a look here first." He indicated the stairs.

*I don't see the harm. There might be something important up there.* A hint of curiosity. Small, but still there.

They went up the stairs slowly. The stairs went up about ten feet and made a U-Turn to go up to the floor above.

Turned out the caution was unneeded, nobody was home and no security systems. There were some desks, chairs, plain file cabinets in the center of a room. Alcoves on either side were had sturdy railings that blocked them off from the main room. It took a moment to realize that the center of the room was actually a walkway that overlooked a series of rooms below them. A small support column in front of each alcove held a monitor that was turned off. There was little doubt that the monitor would show the room below when turned on.

The rooms were only about twenty foot wide and fifteen foot long. Booker leaned over the railing to get a better look at the door. It was made of thick metal and looked very much like something that would be used in a prison.

"Observing what? Looks like a jail cell down there."

*I don't think this one is finished. Let's check the others.*

There were a total of eight cells, four on each side. The ones on the right were unfinished, while those on the left seemed to be completed, but lacked furniture. 'Pink and white wallpaper?'

*Ryan didn't do to all this for no reason.* She sounded better now. Getting her interested in something almost always makes her feel better.

"Whatever the reason is, don't think it's a good one."

They looked through the desks and filing cabinets, but found nothing. Apparently no one had started working here yet. They went back down the stairs and started down the corridor. As they walked down the corridor, they past odd looking equipment mounted on the walls.

The next door they came to was on their right. Upon entering, they found it was a storage area with several crates. Looking through the crates they found blankets, linen, pillows, rugs and parts of metal frameworks. Elizabeth said they looked like they were for beds. Looked a bit on the small side to him to be beds. He scratched the left side of his face as they talked.

_Man: What's the matter, Mary? You look like you could use a boost! _

_Woman: I don't feel so great. I'm dizzy, I'm nauseous, and sometimes I'm even seeing things that aren't there. _

_Man: That's just the Plasmid blues, Mary. You just need to slow down a bit on the splicing. Before you know it, you'll be as right as rain. Remember, a smart Splicer is a happy Splicer!_

They left the storeroom and continued down the corridor to a set of wooden double doors with frosted glass that opened automatically as they got near. These doors opened out into a larger space. At the far end was a curved stairway leading up, on the left was an armored door that led to the cells they had discovered a short time before. Ahead was a set of doors with the sign with "Implantation" on the wall beside them. Further down there as a matching set of similar doors with the sign "Surgical Access" nearby.

Something in his stomach sank when he saw the doors that led to "Implantation".

_Andrew Ryan reminds us: we all make choices, but, in the end, our choices make us. _

*Booker, we, I think you need to look in there.* She had an idea what was behind those doors.

They walked through the doors and found themselves in another decontamination chamber. When the doors opened they found themselves in what Elizabeth said was an operating room. The operating tables had clamps and straps on them, but were too small for an adult.

But they were just right the right size for a child.

Around the room were lights, medical tools, pieces of odd equipment. On the walls where pictures and anatomy diagrams of some kind of strange creatures. Reminded him of a slug, but a lot larger than the ones he knew.

Elizabeth sounded both sick and angry at once. *Those.. those are the Sea Slugs they implant in little girls to make them into Little Sisters. And this is where they do it.*

It was sickening. But...why would they have this out here? Elizabeth said they had been making Little Sisters in Rapture for some time. No need to hide it. The only reason they would have it out here would be so it would be close to…

*The Tear Machine.* His voice sounded hollow even to himself.

*The Lutece Device? What does…oh. They can't….* Her face turned as white as her blouse as it sunk in.

*Ryan's planning to kidnap children from other realities and make them into Little Sisters.*

*Booker, what are you going to do? You CAN'T let that happen!*

*Don't know what to do yet. We need more information. And we need to get to the Tear Machine.*

There was nothing of use in the operating room so they looked in the next room over. It looked like a place where Doctors would get prepared for surgery. Sinks, gloves surgical gowns, masks and more. All ready and waiting to be used. On the far side of the room was an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Project Status_

_February 18, 1959 _

_Mr. Ryan, preparations are nearly complete and I expect that we shall obtain the first four trial subjects within a period of four to seven days. If successful, we will expand to eight before the end of the month. At that point, facilities to warehouse subjects should be well enough along we will be able to start transfers. I discount Suchong's concerns about what he called "Tear Sickness". The subject he retrieved showed no signs of it according to his own notes. If it does arise, the implantation procedure should be enough to maintain the subject's health. If the subject dies, they can easily be replaced. _

_Soon, Mr. Ryan, you will have an inexhaustible supply of ADAM. _

He took a deep breath. *How many children do you think he's talking about?*

*I don't know. Dozens, hundreds, a thousand, more?* She sounded sick at the thought of the number of little girls that would be stolen.

"Let's find that office. Might be something more up there than just a release for the lockdown."

Hundreds of children kidnaped and turned into ADAM factories, their families probably murdered. All for greed and ADAM. They left the surgical preparation area and went to the stairs that led to the elevator to Fontaine's old haunt. They got to top and found what looked like an ordinary office. Desks, chairs and filing cabinets with occasional strange pieces of machinery on the walls. While the floor was tile, a red carpet led from the stairs past the desks and took a turn to the elevator.

"Roll out the red carpet." he said without a trace of humor.

Unlike the desks in the observation area these were in use and a quick search turned up a thermos of tea, a pep bar, some aspirin and thirty dollars in cash. There were several doors to the left where Elizabeth said there had been some booths that where probably used by Fontaine and his men. Now the area was a small meeting room. They took a quick look at the some of the papers on the table and found a memo that talked about the expected period the subjects would produce the maximum amount of ADAM. It was two years, five months.

When a subject was no longer producing a "maximum amount" they would by "recycled" to make room for a new Little Sister to maintain "optimum efficiency".

Every two years they would kidnap more little girls. How could they even think about doing this? He had innocent blood on his hands he could never wash off as a result of his anger, but these people's cold indifference was something utterly beyond him.

Lutece might understand though.

He started to head for the elevator, but Elizabeth asked to search a little more.

*More feelings?*

*No, Fontaine had a safe room here. Still might be something useful in it.*

As they walked to the hidden room, Booker noticed a sealed door ahead.

*There was a supply room there with an entrance on the floor below. Guess they didn't want anyone to get in here that way.* They turned the right and found a blank wall.

"Must have just covered it up not knowing it was there. Ok, what's next?"

*Time for Fontaine's office.*

Several minutes later they were in the elevator heading up.

After a minute he started to wonder how far up this office was and asked Elizabeth.

*The very top of the building. So he can look down on everyone.*

"No surprise."

It was still another couple of minutes before the doors opened again and they stepped out into a well decorated corridor. At the other end was a set of door and in moments they walked through them into what had been Frank Fontaine's office. To Booker's surprise no security systems greeted them.

*Ryoich certainly did a lot of redecorating.*

The room was large with massive metal supports running along the side of the room to meet in the center of the ceiling. At the far end of the space was a massive desk with a huge window that looked to Rapture. In the center of the room was a low table that had what looked to be a tea set on it as was surrounded by cushions. In order to get to across the room you needed to go down a short flight of step and up more of them. Room dividers had been set up to hide the walls and had prints and paintings hung on them. Armored warriors, forests, a stylized wave with a mountain in the background and what he assumed to be Japanese buildings. Along the periphery of the room were several neatly arranged tables.

*They took the model out.*

"Model?"

*Fontaine had a model of the store like the one we saw below in the center of his office. Guess Ryoich didn't like it. Could you look up at the roof a moment? They even fixed the damage from the Lutece particle.*

They started on the right side room and worked their way left. All the objects on the desks and tables were highly ordered and placed in exacting positions. There were memos, invoices organizational charts and business papers. Nothing they were interested in though until they got to a large safe.

He got out the AutoHack and used it on the safe. When it opened, he found two silver bars and a gold one from Columbia. Also inside where two small velvet bags. He picked up one and dumped some of the contents into the palm of his hand. Diamonds, a ruby and several other types of gems. The other bag had a similar mix. These two bags contained a small fortune.

*Well, know we were the gems they took from the jewelry went.*

"At least we won't have to worry about money for a little while."

Next was the oversized desk that overlooked the room.

*Ryoich brought in a new desk. Guess he didn't like Fontaine's.*

On this desk there was just a pile of blank paper, some fancy pens, a miniature tree that Booker had thought was fake until he picked it up, several phones and some brushes and ink. He sat down in the overstuffed chair and started open drawers and found only basic office supplies. The drawer in the middle would not open and for a moment he thought it might just be cosmetic.

But just a moment. He reached under the desk and felt around.

*What are you looking for?*

"A hidden catch. This center drawer is supposed to open and I don't see a lock. Ah, got it." And with a small click Booker easily pulled the center drawer open. Inside was a small console holding six switches with a red and green lights besides them. The switches where all labeled, but in Japanese. Only one of the switches had a red light beside it, the rest were green. Beside it sat some kind of journal.

*That red one must be for the Silver Fin.*

"Let's finish looking around here first." *Still have to find that Bypass upgrade.* He picked up the journal and as he expected, it was in Japanese. Seemed to be backwards. The oldest dates were in the back and the new ones towards the front.

*Look for the latest entries.*

He found the page with the most current date and noticed several of the entries had numbers at the ends of the entries.

*Those numbers. They might be the combination for the door.*

"Well, couldn't hurt to try them." He memorized the last few numbers 8379, 0436 and 0731.

They checked the table and remaining desk, but no upgrade. Then he looked behind the dividers and saw several crates with "Suchong Laboratories" on them. They looked just like the one he had found the bottle of "Shock Jockey" in.

*This guy so pathologically organized he probably didn't even want to even look at Suchong's work if he didn't have to.*

Booker hauled out the two crates and opened the first one to find the Infection upgrade. He immediately made use of it.

"Hm. Seems physical contact is needed to spread the infection."

*Physical contact?*

"The systems have to touch or be physically connected. An infected bot would infect another bot if it ran into it."

*And that second infected bot could infect others?*

"No. Only systems I directly use the Bypass on will spread the "infection". Still going to be mighty useful. I Bypass a Security Camera and a whole building could be infected."

*Basically you're going to be invisible to the automated security systems.*

"Yeah, let's see what's in the other crate." Booker opened the other crate up and discovered a thick stack of papers that were in code. According to Elizabeth they were for the development of new Plasmids.

*It's an easy code to break once you know the cipher. It's the same one he used on his other papers. Never underestimate the fallibility of the ego manic.*

There were also some sketches of Columbia's buildings and photograph of Jeremiah Fink with "stupid man" written all over it. He couldn't resist a soft chuckle.

He finished looking through the crate and at the bottom of the crate was an Audio Diary.

_Yi Suchong: Special Subject Useless_

_January 10, 1959_

_Suchong Test Lots 156, 175, 179, 184 and 186 on subject. Nothing work! Worthless little shit kick Suchong in shin then bite Suchong! Outrage! Send her to be Little Sister. That show little bitch. Total waste of Suchong's time. But, give Suchong idea for increasing ADAM production. Ryan be happy and will leave Suchong to work. _

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He'd been expecting it, but it still hurt. But he had what he needed.

*Booker, I'm sorry. I wish I had been wrong.*

"Not your fault." *Anna's still alive and still fighting. This city won't beat her.*

*How do you know that she's still fighting?*

'Here it goes.' *I know because I've been talking to her most of the time I've been in Rapture.*

*You have? How...uch. You mean me, don't you? Booker, Elizabeth died. I'm just a bunch of ADAM memories. I'm not real. And even if I was alive, I'm not Anna.* She sounded so sad when she said she wasn't real, it hurt.

*Elizabeth, you're as real and alive as I am. After I died at the Baptism, I woke up right where it all started on 1893. When you died in Rapture, you became Anna, as you always should have been.*

*If, IF that's true. And I am NOT saying it is, how can you be talking to Anna?*

'That's why I needed this last Audio Diary.' *What's the first thing you remember when you woke up?*

*What does that have to do with anything? I'm not someone you're interrogating!*

*Please, it's important.* he told her as gently as he could.

She cooled down a little. *I was confused, disoriented. I.. I think you were holding something?*

*I was. It was an empty bottle of Shock Jockey. Just finished drinking it.*

*Shock Jockey? But you don't have Shock Jockey.*

*No, I don't. What was in the bottle wasn't Shock Jockey, but something called Lot 179. A new Plasmid Suchong had been working on.*

*Lot 179? That's the one that Ryoich talked about being for communication.*

*Yeah, Suchong ran out of containers and stored some in a Shock Jockey bottle. And I drank it thinking it was Shock Jockey.*

*Typical, eating and drink...Anna was given Lot 179.* Her voice came out flat.

So far so good. *We've both had this Lot 179. Guess that's why we can talk.*

*I'm... Anna?* Her voice was so small, fragile.

*Of course you're Anna.*

*When I died, I must have merged with her like the other Elizabeths did with me.* She sounded a bit scared.

*You've Always been Anna, Elizabeth.*

*How can you know?*

*I knew the moment I found you in your crib and saw your eyes. Don't know how to say it, but there was more in them than before. Something, someONE I knew.* He didn't speak for a moment. * Couple of years ago, I noticed that when you got bored or were thinking you would act like you were turning something around on the pinky of your right hand.*

*The thimble.*

*Who else could be my Anna other than you Elizabeth.*

She was quite for a few moments, trying to digest it all.

*Booker, please, please tell me she doesn't remember, PLEASE!* The desperation in her voice was heart rending.

Hard part. *No, you don't really remember. You're happy.*

*What do you mean by "really"?* she demanded both angry and scared.

Damn. *I think seeing certain things occasionally triggers a little bit of memory. But you forget almost immediately. You sometimes look at something for a few moments, then continue with what you were doing as if nothing happened. You've only mentioned something from Columbia once.*

*What…did I say?*

*Was a couple of days before this all started, I was showing you the Statue of Liberty. You looked at it and mentioned you liked it better than your tower. I asked you about "your tower" and you gave me a look like you didn't understand and told me "I don't have a tower, Daddy. That's silly." Bought you some pop corn and we went... well, you're Happy Anna.*

'Don't remember anything after the pop corn. We woke up in a hotel the next morning and... later.'

*Booker, please don't call me Anna.* *I, I don't feel like Anna, I don't remember being her, I'm sorry.*

*It's Ok. What you remember or don't remember isn't important. It's enough you're you.*

*And I'm not calling you "Daddy" or some other thing. It's still going to be Booker, got that?* She sounded both defiant and determined, just like she aught.

'It worked. Thank God, it worked.' *Yes, Elizabeth.* he told her in the most submissive voice he could come up with.

*Now let's get down to the Silver Fin. We need to destroy the Lutece Device.*

It was going to be ok. . . . There was no way this damn city was going to beat his daughter. And there was no way it would stop him from finding her.

End Chapter 19

Writers Notes:

About time I put some in. Yes, Elizabeth IS Anna. If you look back, you will see I have been dropping clues that was the case from just about her first appearance.

Some of the concepts and ideas in this story are unused content from Irrational Games. I'm not going to say what they are though. The folks at IG know the work they produced and I make no claim to it. I want to thank all the people following this story, have made a review and favored it. I do pay attention, but I am not the most communicative person in the world, so I do not respond often. Be assured I do pay attention and I greatly appreciate the feedback and support. Just remember to hang on folks. Still got a very bumpy ride ahead of us!


	20. Chapter 20

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 20

-Elizabeth-

'I'm Anna.'

'I am Anna DeWitt.'

She never thought, never DREAMED she could ever be Anna. When the Syphon had been destroyed and she could see behind all the doors, she discovered Booker was her father. But it really hadn't changed how she felt about him. Booker was her friend, someone she trusted, someone who would never abandon her. Even if he failed, he would never stop trying.

And now Booker was her father in much more than in just name, and had been for five years. She wished she could remember it. Wait, how long had Booker known that had been talking to Anna? Those stories he told her?

Booker had finished looking over the contents of the crates and had walked back to Ryoich's desk and the control panel hidden in the desk drawer.

*Booker. How long have you know?*

*That you were Anna? Suspected it when I heard you start to talk. Was sure when you said you had died.* He looked down a moment. It was still hard for him to know I died, even though I'm alive. Like that made any sense. *You're the one who told me there were no such things as ghosts, left only one possibility.*

*So why tell me all about Anna?*

She knew he had a smile on his face. She wished she could see it. He smiled so little in Columbia.

*Thought you would like to know what you had been up to. And that you were happy.*

Happy. After Comstock House she had wondered if she could be truly happy ever again. *Thank you.*

*You're welcome.* "Let's see what happens now."

Booker reached down and hit the switch they hoped turned off the lock down of the Silver Fin and the single red light turned green. "No alarms." He said in a cautiously optimistic voice.

*At least that we can hear.*

"True. Let's see if that opened up the Silver Fin."

As they headed down in the elevator, she realized that she didn't understand a few things. Well, there were a lot of things she didn't understand about Booker and her still being alive, but she was not going to look that particular gift horse in the mouth right now. There was one question Booker might be able to help her with.

*Booker, do you have any idea why I don't remember being Anna? It doesn't make sense that I don't.*

*Been thinking on that. When Anna was taken and brought to Rapture, it was probably enough to bring back a few memories. She would have tried to fight back and looked for anything to help her.*

*And the only real help would have been my memories of Elizabeth. But she couldn't, or didn't want remember everything, but I could. I guess I'm kind of a mental construct of myself.*

*Mental…?*

*Remember when I told you that when I can back to Rapture I created a Booker in my head? That Booker represented the memories I couldn't remember, but were still in my mind. Anna did the same with me. She allowed part of herself to remember being Elizabeth again so I could help her.*

*What I can't understand is why I can't, well, talk with Anna. Why I don't know what she is doing, where she is. How she feels.*

*She blocking you maybe.*

*But I'm her, why would she do that?*

*Might think thinks she's sick. Guess she is in a way. She's protecting you, keeping you from getting sick so you can help me find her.*

The elevator door opened and they were in back in what had been the Manta Ray Lounge. Booker carefully checked the area and slowly made his way towards the Silver Fin.

*Sick? The Little Sister Conditioning.*

*Be my guess. You said that before you woke up, you had a dream were everything was bright or something. I think that's something that happened to Anna. She's keeping you from getting "sick" like she is and that keeps me from getting sick. Did the same when she got a bad cold last year. Almost had to break down the door to take her food one time.*

*You shouldn't be affected by the conditioning.*

*But she doesn't know that.*

*And I can't tell her because she's cut me off.*

*But if you could tell her, you might get "sick" from the conditioning.*

*So in order to help you, she cut me off. And I have no idea where she, I, am.* Aggravating.

"Seems to be the case." Booker said softly.

By now they had left he Manta Ray and were out on the main floor. Booker was keeping a sharp eye out for Security Bots. Halfway to the Silver Fin, a pair of them stormed towards them. Warned by the sound of the rotors, they were able reach cover before being seen. After they past Booker hit the second one with the Security Bypass.

"Might get lucky and it will infect a few others."

As they headed up the stairs to their destination they heard another pair of Security Bots, but here was no place they could take cover. As the first Bot come into sight Booker fired off the Bypass Plasmid and hit it. The Bot seemed to hesitate for a moment and the Bot coming up behind it ran into it. As it was supposed to, the blue flame on the first Security Bot spread to the other one.

*Well, that worked as advertised.* she observed.

"Be interesting to see if Ryoich was right and he can make ourselves invisible to these machines city wide."

_A man's home is his castle, and should be defended as such. You should never back down to intruder in the night. And with Ryan Industries' Home Defense Products, you won't have to. Stand your ground, it's every man's right._

They went to the door of the Silver Fin and the glass shield over the lock was gone and they could try to open the door. The first number they tired didn't work, nor the next, but the last number, 0731 did and the door slid open. She warned Booker earlier about the turret in the floor and it was Bypassed before it had even fully started up. The entryway as the room beyond had stacks of crates and construction materials scattered around.

*The air duct I used to get in here last time is on your left.*

Booker glanced up duct and they could see a set of metal bars blocking it.

"Guess they didn't leave that to chance."

*There's also a metal gate that drops from the ceiling just this side of the turret.*

He looked up and then around for a moment before dragging one of the crates in the entryway under the gate. If the gate came down, it would be stopped by the crate.

"Should take care of that."

All the pictures of Columbia that had been here before had been taken down, but few other changes had been made. But the crates of building supplies suggested that major renovations were being planned. A quick search of the desk turned up a Pep Bar and six dollars. Booker looked over a sign in sheet and it seemed that Ryoich didn't visit very often. One name that showed up nearly every day was Dr. Marley Hirschfield.

Booker went to the stairway and took a few steps then paused and looked back.

"There anyway to reprogram those turrets so they can attack Ryan's people?"

*Yes, you probably can, but I don't know how. Worried we'll be attacked?*

*Looks like we may need to stay in Rapture awhile, be nice to have those turrets do a little of the fighting.*

They turned and headed up the stairs to the Securis door and pulled down the lever to open it. He stood aside as the door opened so that would be out of line of sight or anything in the room. After the door opened he looked around the corner searching for security systems. But the first thing they saw was the glow from the Lutece Device. The Tear at its center showed a burning city in the clouds.

Columbia.

Booker slowly walked into the room a short distance and located three different security cameras. They were all focused on the Device and the Tear. They were careful to stay out of their view and at her direction Booker headed over towards the left and the former bar. Around the Device were heavy ropes, block and tackle and in distant corners of the room some boxes and crates covered by tarps.

*So what's the best way to destroy this thing?* He said it in a way that indicated he knew a few ways already but was looking for additional options.

*Are you sure?*

*You suggesting we don't destroy it?*

*No, it has to be destroyed. I just wanted to know if you thought through the consequences.*

"Knew when I came here there would be long odds on getting back." *Can't leave until Anna's been cured. Could be months away and we can't let more little girls be kidnaped.*

*Let's look around more before we destroy it.*

They continued to left to the former kitchen and waitress area. On the counter were twenty rounds of Tommy Gun ammo and several bandages. Then they walked into the kitchen area. Nothing back by the stoves, so they went to the double doors that led to the former restaurant's freezer.

Booker pushed them open and then quickly jumped back.

A huge figure dressed in a stylized blue and white Revolutionary military uniform carrying an oversized multi barreled gun stood facing the doorway.

"What the hell?!" Booker exclaimed and then he stopped as he realized the Motorized Patriot was not moving.

*Ryan must have stolen it from Columbia for study. I'm glad it's not active.*

*Was NOT expecting to see one of those here.* Booker looked towards the Lutece Device. "Explains the block and tackle. Those things are heavy. Could they be thinking of making their own?"

*I hope not. I certainly don't want to see one that looks like Andrew Ryan walking around asking "Are you a man or a slave?"* She lowered her voice to imitate Ryan's, but didn't think she got it quite right.

Booker cautiously went back to doorway and looked around the room. Sitting near the Patriot was a Columbian Veni! Vidi! Vigor! Machine. On the counter was a Gear, an olive green bottle with a Rams head on it and Vox Heater with a couple of rounds of ammo.

He went over to the Gear and discovered it was Electric Touch. *Well, that's familiar. Not as good as Shock Jockey, but you should still be able to use it to stun, rather than kill.*

*Think it might interfere with our connection?*

*Might, but I doubt it. Are you sure you want to use that Charge? You've used a lot of ADAM already."

"Yeah, got a bad feeling." *Noticed there were a lot more of those Security Bots flying around after we turned off the lockdown.*

*You think they know we're here.*

"Know somethin's up."

Booker drank the Charge and he tensed as his vision turned red for a moment and wind surrounded his hands. She had always known that the Vigor's Booker had used in Columbia had been uncomfortable when they first were used. But she hadn't realized they had been quite so painful. Ironsides must have been improved so it hadn't been as traumatic for her.

*Fink's stuff still kicks like a damn mule.* he grumbled.

*Might be one reason so few people in Columbia used Vigors.*

He took a deep breath and walked to the Veni! Vidi! Vigor! Machine which caused the animatronic figure on top of it to start jerkily moving around.

"_Vigor, a tonic. Fink's formula of wonder. Primal mysteries." _it spouted in a deep voice.

*Wonder if this thing has any Charge upgrades in it.*

The machine displayed its wares and sure enough both Charge upgrades where available.

*Do we have enough money?*

Booker took a moment to check. *Yeah, we do. More than enough to buy Return to Sender or any other Vigor.*

*I don't think it would be a good idea. Charge is similar enough to a Plasmid I read about called "Aero Dash" that people probably won't notice. But there's nothing like Return to Sender here.

*Guess you're right. Ryan's people know enough 'bout Columbia they would notice one of its Vigors being used. Guess that means no Murder of Crows or Undertow either.*

That was easy. Too easy. Guess he's getting worried about ADAM sickness as well.

Booker purchased the two Charge upgrades and took a look at the Heater before putting it down. "Not worth the effort to carry around. Doubt Rapture has ammo for it either."

*No they don't. We still have the upper level to check. Suchong had all his notes on the Lutece Device up there before.*

Booker quickly found the stairs going up and started climbing rubbing the left side of his face as he did so. *Nice to hear you say "we" again.*

*Good to know we're together.* she told him softly. Then in a more humorous tone. *Look out world, here come the DeWitts!*

*Rapture sure as hell better watch out.* Booker warned as they walked onto the balcony. To the left was the desk with the diagrams of the Device below them and to the left the open area that overlooked the Device below. A few desks had been added along with a filing cabinet. Over by the railing where some boxes and crates with the names of electronics manufactures on them.

They headed to the largest desk first. It had several empty bottles of Hop Up Cola on it and empty pep bar wrappers were all over the floor. Copies of the Lutece Device plans and the chalk board was covered with all sorts of mathematical formulas. Looked like advanced physics, but she would have to study them to understand it all. Booker carefully looked over the chalkboard. 'He can read that?'

*Good. Don't think they really understand how the Tear Device works.*

*And how do you know that?* She tried not to sound skeptical, but didn't think she was quite able.

*Two of the formulas are wrong. That one on the top right is incomplete and that bottom left one doesn't have anything to do with tears. Sorry. Comstock spent a lot of time studying the Tear Machine. Given a few years, and enough money, might be able to build one myself. Not that it would matter.*

*Because we would never be able to find the exact reality we came from.*

*Be like looking for a needle in a haystack during a tornado.*

*Unless the Luteces decide to help.*

Booker made a dismissive sound. "Fat chance of that. Would ruin the experiment."

*So we destroy that Device down there and that should end Ryan's project. Unless they have copies of the plans back in Rapture.*

*Can worry about that when we get there.* And he wiped the chalk board clean. "Let's see what else is here."

Booker riffled through the desk and found five pep bars and an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Marley Hirschfield: Impossible Task_

_Feb 2, 1959_

_Mr. Ryan wants full detailed plans on this "Lutece Device" before the end of the month. I helped Dr. Suchong build the device, but he just gave me schematics to build some parts for it. I never even saw it until a couple weeks ago and Mr. Ryan wants me to be able to build a new one? Half the plans are missing and most of the plans we Do have are in code. Some of the math Dr. Suchong was working on doesn't make any sense either. I'm not even sure it has to do with the Device._

_I need to get some Brain Boost. _

*Seems like we won't have to worry at all. Would prefer not to have to go back to Artemis Suites again.*

Booker check through the other desks and filing cabinet but, only found a couple more pep bars and a .38 pistol with six extra rounds of ammunition. He then looked over at the cameras watching the Lutece Device.

"They're worried about the tear."

*I think more worried that someone might come through the tear. Ryan called me a "thief" when he first talked to me.*

"Great way to make friends." Booker walked over to the railing and looked through the crates briefly before she spotted something.

*Booker! Back to the left. There, that cylinder. It's the CO2 scrubber I took from the bathysphere. You won't have to rely on that air tank. I guess Suchong replaced it with something better when he repaired it.*

He picked up the Scrubber, put it in his bag and continued to search, but only found more parts for the Lutece Device and a First Aid Kit.

"Nothing about Anna." Booker said sadly.

*Sorry Booker. Let's destroy the Device and get to Rapture to find her.*

"Need these papers first." *Not going to leave anything they might find useful.* He gathered the papers and then they started back down the way they came.

-Booker-

Elizabeth was sounding much better. Even starting to joke a little again. He didn't like not being totally open with her, but he didn't think telling her that some of her current state might be the result of Anna... "finding" Elizabeth's body would help anyone. He hoped Elizabeth didn't think of the possibility herself. He was happy that Elizabeth knew that she was, and always had been, Anna.

As they stepped off the stairs, he heard the Securis door start to make its particular grinding sound as it prepared to open.

*Looks like you were right to be worried.*

He dropped the papers, then went into the kitchen and braced his pistol on the counter. Whatever came through that door, he was going to get the first shot off.

*Elizabeth, if these are Ryan's people, I'm not going easy on them.*

*I, I understand.* She didn't sound too happy about that, but she understood. If he could knock them out without much risk, fine. But he wasn't going to get himself killed to do it.

What came through the door surprised him. It was two Security Bots. He was able to check his fire as they were covered in blue flame, indicating they had been Bypassed. The Bots' roamed around the inside of the room and ignored them. He was just about to stand when he heard sounds coming from the stairs outside.

Footsteps. Metal on metal. Whispering.

Whoever it was, they were very poor at sneaking around.

*Ryan Security. They must have set the Security Bots in here to flush you out.*

More noise. Leg starting to itch. At least five people, probably six, eight at maximum. Good chance of splicers. Engage first target with pistol to stop enemy advance. Will cause enemy to bunch at doorway. Follow up with Devil's Kiss Trap just outside door.

The first of Ryan's people came through the entryway crouched down and his shotgun at the ready. He wore he long coat like the Guards, but had a strange face mask with what looked like a long snout on it. He didn't move like a guard or a cop. He moved like a soldier. The mask the soldier wore seemed to make it hard to see since it took him several moments to spot Booker.

The soldier yelled something into his mask and swung his shotgun in Booker's direction. Booker shot and the man went down. The strange mask didn't seem to be armored. Another one of Ryan's men came through the door with a Tommy Gun and started shooting just as Booker threw the Devil's Kiss Trap.

Several rounds hit him, but were absorbed by his Shield. He fired once then ducked down as the Trap detonated behind the man firing on him. Men screamed as fire consumed them and just as the flames from the explosion died a second explosion went off.

'Upgrade worked.' He stood back up with the Tommy Gun at ready only to find another of Ryan's soldiers standing ten feet from the door, apparently unharmed. Immune to fire or just moved fast? This one had another odd face mask on, one that had light glowing from within. Along with the tank strapped onto his back, he reminded Booker strongly of a Fireman. The flames coming from the splicer's hands didn't hurt.

*It's a Houdini splicer! Remember, they can teleport.* The worry in her voice told him that they had given her an especially bad time.

Just as Booker pulled the trigger, the Splicer vanished in a cloud of red smoke. He quickly scanned the room looking for where he went. There! By the far stairway. Booker quickly fired and the splicer launched several small fireballs back at him.

"You can't hid from me!" the splicer yelled just before he vanished in another cloud of red smoke.

He dodged to the side and the fireballs went sailing harmless past him. The Fleet Feet Gear worked just as well as he remembered. Devil's Kiss useless, they would vanish before it went off. Possession?

Then another cloud of red smoke appeared in the room. Two of them now. The new Houdini had appeared facing the Tear Machine and not looking at Booker. That one.

He launched the plasmid at the second splicer who turned toward Booker just in to time to get hit. The green spirit vanished into a cloud of green smoke. Didn't work?

*No! These Houdini are immune to Possession!*

Now she tells him.

The first splicer launched several more fireballs as Booker fired a burst at him.

He vanished after getting hit by a couple rounds. He was a bit disappointed in this Tommy Gun. While it was accurate, firing caused a lot of barrel rise. Could only keep it on target for short bursts.

The second splicer threw several more fireballs but he was able to avoid those as well. As he turned to shoot, the splicer vanished. The first Houdini vanished again only to reappear at the far end of the kitchen, hurling fireballs as appeared.

He backed up, but was still hit by the first one which took down nearly half of his shield. Bucking Bronco. The splicer was brutally thrust into the air and he poured fire into the flailing splicer before he disappeared.

Damn. Had hoped they couldn't do that after being hit by a Bronco.

He looked out across the Silver Fin and spotted the splicer appearing at the foot of the step in the other side of the room. The second splicer loosed two fireballs in his direction as two more of Ryan's troops came through the doorway. One had a shotgun and some kind of heavy metal helmet, the other with a revolver and a helmet with a clear face shield.

As he brought the Devil's Kiss he heard something that made his blood run cold.

"**For family!**"

'Damn it!' *Patriot!*

He ducked down as the shogun boomed and shredding the wall behind him. He got Possession ready. 'Hope it works.'

With the sound of breaking wood the massive Patriot came charging past the kitchen and smashed through the doors and out into the main room. The splicers stopped attacking, clearly unsure what to do.

*It ignored us?* Elizabeth blurted in surprise.

*Maybe it thinks I'm Comstock.*

The Patriot bellowed** "My aim is true, as my eye is the Prophet's."** as it stopped and brought up its Gatling Gun.

The Security Bots, now with an enemy they could see, turned on the Patriot and started to fire.

He stood up again to witness the changing situation. The Patriot opened fired on the closest Bot and quickly blew it out of the air. With the destruction of the Bot the rest of Ryan's men started firing on the automaton.

Too good a chance to ignore. He brought the machine gun up to this shoulder and fired putting a heavy burst into the second Houdini splicer, killing him. The automaton turned and opened fire on Ryan's men at the doorway and the one with the shotgun died in a hail of bullets. The other with the revolver ducked back under cover before he got hit.

The Patriot had taken damage though and took more damage as the Bot and remaining Houdini Splicer both attacked it. The Patriot swung around to fire on the splicer several times, but he vanished before the oversized automaton could fire.

"**Rejoice, for death has no sting.**" it bellowed despite its damage. Damn things never shut up. The clothes the machine wore suddenly blew around as if they were in a strong wind. But it only lasted a moment and the Patriot didn't seem to be damaged.

The remaining Bot got too close and the battered Patriot swung it's heavy Gatling Gun knocking the Security Bot out of the air to the floor where it exploded. Sporadic fire from the doorway continued as the damaged Columbia machine futilely hunted the splicer.

Booker drew his revolver as a final flurry of fireballs slammed into the Patriot and it rang like a gong and finally fell. Apparently surprised by the Patriots fall, the Houdini hesitated a moment and Booker carefully drew a bead on his head and fired.

'Still one left.' Booker thought as he ran out of the kitchen. Surprisingly, the remaining enemy, the one with a clear faceplate on his helmet, stepped out from behind cover to confront him. Alarms went off in his head. Didn't stand like a soldier, but a thug. Something around his left hand. Splicer. Booker dodged to the left, he didn't know what the man was going to do, but he was going to do something.

Suddenly Booker was hurled into the air ten feet to land painfully a moment later. His Shield didn't protect him from this type of damage. As he tried to stand he was blown off his feet to smash into the wall behind him.

"My men are dead because a you, now you're going to join them." he said in a harsh sadistic voice and started firing the .38.

Booker's Shield had recovered some time ago, so the rounds didn't get past it. He was hurting and quickly used a First Aid Kit and he ran for cover. Then Booker realized something. He had heard that voice before, more than a month before.

He was one of the men who had taken his daughter.

Need him alive. Might know something.

The thug realized that his pistol wasn't doing much and raised his left hand. "I have control of the wind bandit!" he growled.

He brought up the Sky-Hook with the Charge Vigor. Whatever the thug did slammed into the wind generated by the Vigor and dissipated harmlessly.

Booker didn't let the power of the Charge Vigor build for more than a moment before he released it and smashed into the surprised thug.

The man was knocked back ten feet and lay paralyzed as the effects of the Electric Touch Gear played over him. As the blue arcs of electricity faded Booker kicked the pistol from the man's hand and hauled him to his feet to slam him against the nearest wall, the barrel of his pistol jammed hard under his jaw.

"You got one chance to tell me where the girl is" he demanded angrily "or I blow your head off."

*Booker! What are you doing?*

Booker cocked the hammer on the pistol to emphasize his point.

"Dont, don't know what yer talkin bout." the thug said groggily.

"The girl you kidnaped a month ago. Through that machine."

*He's one of the men who took Anna?*

"Howinmy supposed ta know?" the thug slurred "Juss followin orders. Get girl, kill anyone in da way. Nutin big."

Then it sank in and the man's eyes bugged out in fear. "That's right." Booker told him. "You didn't kill me. Now. Where. Is. My. Daughter!" He jammed the pistol harder into the man's jaw.

"Don't know! Jist did wha Shuchongk told me!" the thug squealed.

*Booker! This isn't right! He doesn't know anything!*

"No, he doesn't." he said in a low tone and suddenly threw the thug to the floor. He landed hard face first and his helmet flew off. The thug lay on the floor not moving.

*No! What are you doing?* She was both angry and scared now. She knew what he wanted to do.

Booker stood over the man, his pistol pointed at the back of his head. His hand gripped the pistol so hard it hurt. He wanted SO MUCH to pull the trigger.

*Don't do it Booker! Please!*

His hand started to shake. It would be SO EASY.

*Booker, please put down the gun. He's not worth it. Please!* Elizabeth was begging him.

Still shaking, he slowly lowered the gun. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was right, he wasn't worth it.

He thought he'd come so far, but still had almost made the same mistake again.

*Thank you Booker.* she told him quietly.

"No, thank you. I might have... Thank you." he closed his eyes a moment. It had been close.

The thug on the floor groaned and started to move. Booker got out the Sky-Hook and rendered him unconscious.

He looked down at the thug for several moments and took a step towards the Tear Device. He noticed that the scene in the Tear had changed. Looked like someplace in Emporia.

"Let's get rid of this thing."

*Yes, let's.* she said in a relived voice.

As they approached the Tear Machine a huge screen dropped from the ceiling as the shutters on the windows closed. A moment later an image appeared on the screen. It was a close up of a man with a mustache and hat drawn down low over his face so you couldn't see his eyes.

In the bottom left of the image was a name.

Ryan

The image flickered a moment and a deep voice filled the room.

"_Do you know what they call someone who enters a man's home to steal from it? A thief. I do not like thieves in My city, Mr. DeWitt."_

End Chapter 20


	21. Chapter 21

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 21

-Booker-

"_Do you know what they call someone who enters a man home to steal from it? A thief. I do not like thieves in My City, Mr. DeWitt."_

*Guess we got noticed.* Elizabeth grimly noted. *Booker, meet Andrew Ryan, the Founder of Rapture.* She didn't even seem to be trying to keep the disgust out of her voice.

"_You have killed my men and let loose traitors onto my streets. You have much to account for Mr. DeWitt." _

"You call me a thief when *your* men kidnaped my daughter and nearly killed me. You started this Ryan, not me."

Ryan was quiet for a several moments.

"_You do have a point Mr. DeWitt. The acquisition of the girl was ordered by Dr. Suchong without my knowledge. However, I believe the remains of his estate should be able to provide adequate compensation. Minus the damages you have incurred of course." _

*He's trying to buy you off?*

"Don't money Ryan. I want my daughter."

"_The girl provides important resource needed to ensure the survival of My City. It is quite impossible for you be allowed to take her. I assure you that she will be well cared for the rest of her life and is quite happy performing her duties." _

"Rest of her life? Duties?" His anger was boiling up again. Murdered in two years? Drinking blood?

"_As part of this agreement, you will be unable to return from where you came, but you shall be a rich man which more than compensates for any inconvenience. I believe I am making quite a generous offer considering your behavior." _

"You. want. me. to. sell. my. daughter?" Calm down. Need to keep your head. CALM DOWN.

*Bastard.* She was off to the side with her fists clenched, glaring at the screen.

"_The girl no longer belongs to you. The only question is if you will profit from this situation. You should be happy for her Mr. DeWitt. She is an important part of Rapture and Rapture shall be the Salvation of Humanity. It is an honor to be part of My City and I believe a man of your talents could do well here." _

*He's trying to keep you from destroying the Lutece Device. Booker, could you please show him what we think of his "offer"?*

He got out the Sky-Hook and took a step towards Tear Machine. There were more than a few parts the Sky-Hook would easily destroy.

"_Where did you get that?"_

"Get what?" He took another steps towards the Tear Machine.

"_The Air Grabber you hold it is very unusual. So tell me, does the name "Comstock" mean anything to you?"_

He didn't think Ryan wasn't playing for time and diverting him from looking too closely at a connection between him and Comstock was a good idea.

He made a show of looking at the Sky-Hook. "This? It says "Sky-Hook" on it. Them that helped me come here left it for me. Guess they thought it might be useful."

"_And what of Comstock. What do you know that religious fanatic?" _Ryan demanded, his voice full of scorn and . Ryan's probably worried about Columbia discovering Rapture. Got reason, both Comstock and the Vox would hate his guts.

"Yeah, I know 'em." *Booker!?* "Anthony Comstock, head of the so called "New York Society for the Suppression of Vice". Tried to hire me last year."

*Oh for… If you're trying to provoke Ryan, you're doing a good job.*

*Distracting him.*

"_You are a mystery Mr. DeWitt, and I do not like mysteries. You can either accept my offer or you can share the fate of those others that abused my good will."_

Ryan's half hidden face was replaced by a view of the Fontaine department store building the he and Clarice's people had escaped from. As they watched, the lights flickered and went out. Then a series of explosions appeared at different locations on the structure.

*He blew out the windows. There's no way they could survive.* Elizabeth said in a stunned, sad voice.

Both of them had known something like that was going to happen, but it still hurt. He prayed that Clarice and those poor mad splicers hadn't suffered long.

Time to show Ryan what he and Elizabeth though of that "generous" offer and Ryan's "good will".

He spun up the Sky-Hook and started to rip apart the delicate systems of the Tear Machine. He noticed that the view in the Tear had shifted again. It looked out a window and he could see Harmony Lane below. Must be inside the Emporia Towers.

"_STOP! What are you doing!"_

"Thought you would be able to figure that out. When I done making sure you can't kidnap more girls, I'm Going To Find My Daughter!"

"_You fool. You are just like that young woman who stood in that same spot and refused me. She paid with her life and you shall as well." _

"Had someone lot like you try to kill me already. I'm still around, they aren't."

"_You would match wills with me? It was MY will that Rapture was built! It is MY will that.."_

"Shut Up Ryan!" he commanded. "Doesn't take "will" to make a city like this. All it takes is power and being too afraid to admit You're Wrong!"

His Sky-Hook cracked the main inducer and cut two control lines. Or was that the line to the Junction System? Wasn't sure.

"Look how far you ran so you could hide from the truth Ryan, all the way to the bottom of the damn ocean." He didn't even try to hide his scorn.

"_How Dare You!"_ Ryan bellowed angrily.

A few sparks shot out from the Tear Machine. *Booker, I don't think you should have hit that.*

"People like you never ask the question "Can I be wrong?" because You. Are. Afraid .Of. The. ANSWER! He punctuated each word with another strike at the Tear Machine.

"_This is MY City! I shall crush you like an insect!" _Ryan raged.

A shower of sparks erupted from the Tear Machine and the Tear in the center of it grew in size.

*Booker! Get away from it!* Elizabeth screamed.

He jumped back and turned to run back towards the kitchen. 'Guess I DID hit the Junction System.'

As he sprinted away from the Tear Machine there was a blinding flash and the sound of thunder.

Then nothing.

–Elizabeth–

She couldn't hear or see anything. What had happened to the Lutece Device? What happened to Booker?

*Booker. Booker! Can you hear me?* He wasn't dead. She would know, she would feel it.

There! Some light. One of Booker's eyes cracked open, it was all blurry and she couldn't make out anything. Still couldn't hear.

*Booker! Are you ok? Can you hear me?*

*Yeah, can hear you. Talk softly, head hurts.*

He closed his eyes a moment and rested. When he reopened them, he was on his back looking at the Lutece Device. Or what was left of it.

The top half of the Device was missing. No, not missing. It was fading in and out of reality just as the furniture and other objects near the sabotaged Device in the Lutece Laboratory in Columbia had done. She could start to hear something again. It was only a high pitched ringing sound, but it was a sign Booker's hearing was returning.

Booker staggered to his feet, used a First Aid Kit and looked around. *How did I get over here?*

They were on the other side of the room now, at the foot of the other flight of stairs going up to the balcony.

*I don't know. All I saw was a bright light.*

He looked back to the Device and they could see that something was on the floor beneath where the Tear had been. It was a Gear sitting in a hole carved into the floor. The case was damaged, but looked it looked like its contents were still intact. The screen Ryan had been using had been destroyed as had the Security Cameras. Even the crates and other equipment at the periphery of the room had suffered damage.

He took a step towards the Gear, but hesitated as he looked at the Device. The top part of the Device looked more insubstantial now. Parts of it detached themselves to float away and faded away to nothing.

*I think what's happening to the Device is something similar to what happened to the Luteces. Parts of the Device are being scattered over multiple realities.*

"No way Ryan will able to fix that. Think it's safe to get that Gear?" She could hear some now, but things sounded flat and muffled.

*I would rather not get very close.*

"Me either." He said and scratched his face. Then he looked at the block and tackle then walked over to it and picked up a length of rope.

*Don't tell me, you worked as a cowboy.*

"Not quite. Did learn how to use a rope though." Booker created a loop at one end of the rope and tossed it at the Gear, clearly hoping to ensnare it.

And missed.

"Hey, it's been awhile." He said defensively before she could comment. She hoped Anna was smiling about this.

On his second try Booker caught the Gear and pulled it towards him. As he did so, she noticed pieces of broken wood scattered about and what looked like part of a chair leg.

'The Tear must have opened for a moment as the machine overloaded. The Gear must have been the only thing tough to make it through intact. Glad Booker wasn't very close.'

*Booker, where is that thug you knocked out?*

He looked around, but didn't see him. The bodies of Ryan's other attackers still littered the room and the destroyed Patriot hadn't been moved. Then she realized that the thug had been much closer to the Lutece Device when it overloaded than Booker had been.

"He couldn't have woken up and run. Not in the shape he was in."

*I don't think he did. I think he might have gone through the Tear.*

*Be a fitting end for the bastard.* "Let's see what this Gear is."

"This is new. Called "Cat's Feet". Quiets the noise from movement and reduces damage from falls."

*Make it easier to sneak up on people. We better get out of here. No telling what Ryan will do next.*

"Shouldn't blow the place up at least. He will want to see if that thing could be fixed." Booker quickly searched the bodies for anything useful and found a First Aid Kit, a syringe of EVE, 83 dollars, enough machine gun ammo to replenish what he had used and an AutoHack Tool. He didn't keep the EVE syringe.

Booker had started to leave when she reminded him about the schematics. They had been blown all about the room because of the overload.

"Take a long time to pick 'em up."

*Could use the Devil's Kiss, no wait the Heater.*

*The Heater sounds good.*

They went in back and retrieved the Vox weapon and fired a round at the largest group of papers. They caught on fire quite nicely. Booker quartered the room firing one shot into each section. In a minute, all the papers were reduced to ash.

Booker tossed the empty Heater aside, refilled his EVE and walked to the door. They had just entered the lobby of the Silver Fin when most of the lights went out.

"Great." *Ryan must have cut the power to slow us down.*

"Probably sending more people here. Sore looser I take it?"

*A VERY sore looser.*

Booker continued towards the entrance and she realized she couldn't hear when he walked anymore. Even stepping on broken glass produced no noise.

*That Gear works nicely. Would have been nice to have when I was here.*

"Seems you did ok without it."

*Still, would have been easier if I had it.*

*Probably would have spent a lot of time in Columbia to find it.*

*On second thought, I did fine without it.* She had not enjoyed going back to Columbia.

Booker's radio came to life. It was Ryan again. He seemed calm, but there was anger boiling beneath the surface.

+_It seems I greatly overestimated you. I had almost admired you for you being able to get to My City. But like so many others, your "altruism" has brought you low. No matter. I have become quite good at eliminating pests. All I need is the right poison._+

*Defiantly a sore loser.* they said as one.

They got to the entrance and the gate had dropped down and been blocked by the crate. Booker strained for a moment and lifted the heavy metal grate up out of the way and let it fall with a crash after he had passed beneath it.

They headed out into the atrium and it was cloaked in shadow. Almost all of the lights were dark here as well.

*Booker, I think we need to go back to where we found the jeweler's tools.*

"Why?"

*The Sky-Hook. Now Ryan knows that you have one..."

*He'll figure it's me if he gets a report of a strange looking Air Grabber.*

*The Air Grabbers aren't as well made as your Sky-Hook, but the still works. Maybe we will be able to make some improvements to it when we get up to Rapture.*

"Going to need to be careful getting there."

*You think Ryan has more people here.*

It bothered her a little that Booker still spoke out loud so often, but she knew it was to give the Luteces data for their "experiment". He stopped talking and they would know something was going on. Just hoped it didn't give their position away.

"Be surprised if he didn't. Should have left a few people to guard the spheres. How much of a problem will the lack of power be to launch the sphere?"

*None. But getting to the Maintenance Bay will be. No power...*

"Means no elevators. Got another problem, what happens when we try to leave?"

*Ryan's going to be watching. Wait, we can use that to our advantage, can't we?*

"Send out one of spheres that brought Ryan's people here..."

*And Ryan destroys it and thinks he killed you.*

"You got it. Then we take "your girl" out around the long way and dock on the other side of the city."

*You make it sound easy.*

"Course it's going to be easy. Life is always easy for us DeWitts."

"_It seems like everybody's on the go these days. Everybody but you! Experience Ryan Industries' New Winter line of Plasmids! Evolve today!_"

Several minutes later they were in Atlas's old medical dispensary and Booker picked up the Air Grabber and put it in his bag.

*Not going to use it yet?*

"Be good to practice with it for a bit. Going to be a bit different then the Sky-Hook."

As the got closer to the Service Bay, Booker moved more carefully and sometimes he stopped totally just to listen. Third time he stopped they heard something. Took a moment to realize it was someone talking in a low voice, but she couldn't make it out.

Booker crouched down low to stay out of sight and get in closer.

"Tell you somethin' happening." said a deep voice.

"With Atlas and his thieves, something is always going on." came a second voice with a German accent.

"Tellin ya this is different. We get sent out here hours ahead of schedule and the other squads get left behind. We get here and Mitchell gets sent in and we get left here with orders to stay here and guard these doors. Then all the lights go out."

Neither voice was muffled. They didn't have helmets on.

"I know, I heard the orders the same time you did. And we should follow those orders." the second voice admonished.

"That's not what I mean. Why did they drag all of us out there with Atlas pullin' crap back in the city? Ryan scared of something out here?" the first came back.

"Ryan has something going on here and I don't want to know what it is. You get dead if you know too much of his business."

"And what about Mitchell's squad? Why can't we reach them? You think the guy who did Walt's people got em?"

"I don't know and I don't care. If something bad happened to Mitchell, it would be good thing." the second replied.

*You can feel the love these people have for each other. I don't think we are going to learn anything from these two.*

"Hey, Walt was a good guy. Whoever did that needs to be left hanging in Apollo Square. And hang slow."

*No, don't think we will. Should be able to get the drop on 'em. Darkness is helping us more than hurting.*

Booker had just about worked his way around to the far side of the room when one of the security man's radio's came to life.

+_Victor, Arnold, get back down here. Orders from the top to make sure the docking bay is secure. The mad splicer took out Mitchell and his men. We're supposed to lock the place up until reinforcements get here._+

The second one responded "Yes, Sargent. Heading back now." They could hear the men start to move.

*Mad Splicer? Humph.*

*To Ryan, anyone that doesn't buy into his twisted philosophy is mad.*

"Christ! One splicer taking down all those guys? Half 'em were splicers too!"

Booker carefully looked around the corner of the display case as they two men neared the door. Neither was watching behind them very much. He sprinted up behind them and struck the second one as the first one, (Arnold?) pushed the doors open. He fell to the floor, hitting with a hard "thump".

"Victor?" the first man said and started to turn. Booker struck him before he finished.

So busy trying to leave they didn't pay attention to what was behind them. Sloppy.

_Jim: Hey, Mary, going to the big game tonight? I heard Ryan's Raiders are playing._

_Mary: No way, Jim! It's not safe. Haven't you heard? Atlas' bandits are everywhere._

_Jim: Hold on a second there! Remember what Andrew Ryan says: if you do that, the bandits win. Take your family to Fort Frolic and Arcadia. Go out and shop. It's the Rapture way of life!_

Booker quickly search the two unconscious men finding some money, a flask of alcohol, a sandwich and a bottle of soda. "Guess the elevators must still be working. Musta just killed the lights." He walked back a short distance to the Circus of Values and hit it with Bypass and then Possession.

We need some way to surprise those men down in the docking bay. *Booker, do you think one of those long coats would fit you?*

He collected the money and bought some EVE. "Let's check. Seeing the uniform should be enough to slow them down at least."

*Hopefully will buy you enough time to knock them out rather than kill them.*

"Or at least not get shot up."

He looked over the two men a moment, Victor seemed to be taller so Booker took his coat and tried it on. "Should do." Then he picked up one of the hats to complete the disguise.

He started to walk to the elevator then stopped. "Going to be expecting two people in the elevator."

Booker grabbed Arnold and tossed him over his shoulder then headed for the elevator in back.

When he got there he stood Arnold up and put the unconscious man's right arm over his own shoulder and didn't seem bothered by the weight. She wondered how Booker got to be so strong. Back in Columbia he had repeatedly done things with a single hand what she had been unable to do with two. And in the escape from her tower he had carried her on the Sky-Hook with no difficulty.

*Booker, how did you get so strong? I know that sounds a bit odd, but your stronger than just about anyone I have ever met.*

"Run's in the family I guess. Some of it at least. Worked hard grow'in up, then the Army and I've kept busy since then."

*I felt so weak compared to you in Columbia.*

"No exercise. Spent all your time reading and learning to pick locks. Anna seems to be trying to make up for it though."

*Make up for it, how?*

"By not staying still for two minutes. Always running around. Has no problem keeping up with the boys, even some of the older ones."

*You make it sound like she's a trouble maker.* Was Booker letting her run around and get in trouble?

"Nothing like that. She likes to investigate, explore, experience things. Good at finding trouble, but she usually doesn't cause it."

The elevator slowed which ended the conversation. With a "ding" the door opened and they looked out into the Docking Bay. Still as dark as it had been earlier, which was a good thing because they were confronted by four of Ryan's Security men.

"Hey, Pete get a First Aid Kit! We got injured!" one of them yelled when he saw what was in the elevator.

Two of the men came to help Arnold while Pete turned to run top get a First Aid Kit. A man with the radio demanded "Victor! What happened?"

Booker didn't say anything. "Was it the splicer?" he demanded.

Both of men trying to help Arnold had their hand full lifting the unconscious man when the man with the radio noticed that Booker was not Victor. "You're not...!" he yelled and grabbed for his pistol.

Booker hit one of the men holding Arnold with the Sky-Hook and put him to the floor, then he launched a Bronco at the man with the radio. The other man holding Arnold took a moment to disentangle himself. It was a moment too long.

Booker grabbed the man by the neck and slammed his knee into his solar plexus. The man fell to the floor gasping for air. Booker then sprinted over to the man help aloft by the Bronco and used the Sky-Hook to render him unconscious. The Electric Touch adding insult to injury by shocking him.

"Oops, didn't mean that." he muttered.

Then a small crate slammed into Booker, knocking him back. He looked up to see the guard that had been sent to get the First Aid Kit. He made a gesture and another small crate flew up to left hand as if drawn by magnets.

Booker fired off another Bucking Bronco in the nick of time. The man was slammed into the air and crate smashed into the wall over Booker's head. Booker again sprinted to the thrashing man and made use of the Sky-Hook. Again the Electric Touch Gear activated and small bolts of electricity played over the man.

"Not sorry about that though."

He walked back to the remaining guard who was coughing and trying to regain his feet. Booker grabbed the man's handcuffs, pulled his hands behind him and locked the cuffs around them. Shortly the rest were safely cuffed.

"How did that guy make the crates do that?"

*It must be the Telekinesis Plasmid. I don't think it had been released yet when I was here before.*

"Could he unlock the handcuffs?"

*Don't think so? Where are going to put them.*

*The Café store room is about the only thing I can think of. Doesn't need to hold them long, just long enough to keep them from seeing what we're doing.*

_After the bombing of the Kashmir, we were all plenty scared of Atlas and his thugs. But only a fool counts out the right-thinking folks of Andrew Ryan's Rapture. Atlas' thugs have been pushed out of Point Prometheus, they're on the run in Port Neptune. It's one thing starting a war, Atlas, but finishing one's an altogether different matter. Folks say it's only a matter of time before Atlas' entire mob comes out waving the white flag..._

"Ryan's goin' to kill you. Doesn't matter how you carve us up, you're dead."

Booker turned to the source of the voice. It was the guard he put his knee into.

*Really? You just took out the four of them and he's making threats?* Guess some people just have to bluster.

"Hate to tell you this fellow, but Ryan lied to you. I didn't carve up anyone. Killed the thing that did though." He reached down and hauled the man up to his feet. "Time to take a walk." He pushed the man towards the Café and the store room. It took nearly ten minutes to drag all five men to the storeroom.

As they did so Booker idly wondered why the one with the Telekinesis Plasmid hadn't used his Tommy Gun.

*I think it's the power.*

"The power?"

*Well, the feeling of power. Splicers seem to love the power they have and look for a reason to use it.*

"Even when using it may not be a good idea."

*Guess, that's what power does to some people.*

"Or maybe why some people try to get power. Because they like it."

*Never thought of it that way. My powers were just something I used. I never wanted them.*

"Me either. People like Ryan on the other hand, they love their power. Probably one reason he came down here. It's where he could be top dog."

*And Comstock went up.*

Booker twitched slightly when she said that. *Hate to say it, but Comstock didn't love power. It was just a means to an end, nothin' more. Guess that's one difference between him and Ryan.*

*Comstock left behind all his power to come to Rapture. He was running from his guilt, but I never thought about what he left behind.*

*His wife, his city, all that he had built and all he thought he believed in. Just to run from his guilt, from himself. Wonder what kind of world he could have made if he had taken responsibility.*

What did Booker just say?

*You think Comstock could have been redeemed?! After what he did?* She couldn't believe what he was saying!

*What's the real difference between me and Comstock Elizabeth? I admit what I did, face what I have done. I'm just as guilty for what I did at Wounded Knee as he was. But Comstock ran, hid, refused to take responsibility. Facing up to killing Anna wouldn't have redeemed him, but it would have been a step in the right direction. He could have stopped being Comstock if he tried.*

*But he didn't. He ran here to forget it all.* she retorted angrily.

*Yeah, he ran. None of them stopped running, ever. Guess that's what made them Zachary Hale Comstock and not Booker DeWitt.* He almost seemed sad. *Best tend to business in the here and now.*

For a moment she thought about what Booker was talking about. What could have been done with Columbia's technology. Even just the Lutece Particle. The whole world could have been changed. But she knew that in all the different realities, Columbia never made the world a better place. It only led to the world's destruction.

-Booker-

He dragged the last one of Ryan's people into the storage room and laid him on the floor, if not gently. The lone man in the room glared at Booker with a mixture of fear and hate. Guess he didn't believe Booker wasn't going to kill him.

Booker closed the door and used a broom to jam it closed. Then it was back to the Bathysphere dock. The sphere they were going to send as a distraction was a standard one built by Ryan Industries. Booker looked around inside the sphere a few moments as if he where double checking on something.

*You're not planning to pull the level and try to get out before the door closes are you?*

"No, that doesn't seem like a good idea. Could probably do it, but better to use a rope.*

*Hope this rope trick works better than your last one.*

"Very funny. Thinking of sending it to Arcadia. Got a better idea?"

*No, Arcadia would be the best.*

It wasn't too hard to find a rope in the construction material around them and soon the sphere was on its way. They watched the sphere as it headed towards Rapture for a minute then turned to go the elevator to take them down the Service Bay. When the radio came to life.

+_Did you Really think you could enter My City without my permission DeWitt? Have your altruistic delusions rotted your mind so greatly that you believe you can steal from me?_+

Booker turned back to the window. "You haven't been able to stop me yet Ryan."

+_Did you know that there is a radio beacon in all he bathysphere's my company makes? And that torpedos can home in on that signal?_+

He tried to sound surprised and upset. "What? You think you're just going to sink me?"

+_Oh, I assure you I can. And I have. Goodby, "Mr. DeWitt"_\+ Ryan seemed rather cheerful now.

He could just make out the sphere in the distance. And then there were two small flashes and a bubble of air went up and remains of the sphere sank.

He made sure the radio was off and said "What was it you said earlier about egomaniacs?"

She chuckled a little. *Never underestimate the fallibility of an egomaniac.* *He seemed rather happy at the thought of killing you Booker.*

"Well, let's not do anything to ruin his mood." *The best grift is the one where the victim never even realizes they were fooled.*

*I think we should check over the sphere before we leave. There could be a radio beacon on it as well.*

"Best that we check then, I want to get out of this place." And they left for the Service Bay.

A search revealed that the Stingray did have a radio beacon on it. Elizabeth said it was needed for the automated navigation system. But since they weren't going to be using the automated system, there would be no problem in disabling the system.

Shortly after that, they were on their way. As they had planned, they headed out and away from Rapture with the former Fontaine Department store building between them and the city. Then they slowly circled to the other side before heading in to find a place to dock. Elizabeth guided them to "Prosperity Way". It was a lower middle class area that tended to keep to itself. She had visited it a number of times and knew her way around it fairly well.

Said it had a good bookstore.

It had taken over an hour and half in travel time and Booker had to use the air tank to avoid running out of oxygen. But it wasn't all that comfortable to use. The Stingray surfaced in the dock and the door opened. He sat a moment to enjoy the relatively fresh air before putting the tank back behind the seat and stepping out into the docking bay.

*Welcome to Rapture, Mr. DeWitt. I don't think you're going to enjoy your stay very much.* Elizabeth said in voice that mocked the announcements on the loudspeakers.

"No problem. Get the feeling there are going to be a lot of people that will enjoy my stay a lot less." He told her with a grim smile.

End Chapter 21


	22. Chapter 22

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 22

-Booker-

Booker stood on the dock a moment and wondered what he should do next. They couldn't just leave the sphere sitting here, could they?

Then he noticed several people walking towards him. Two of them, a wiry short dark haired man and a heavyset woman with graying hair were dressed in work cloths. They had the look of them who would rather be someplace else, but still had to work to do. The third person who walked a little behind wore the long coat of Rapture Security and radiated an unhappy attitude. For some reason he had a long wood box under his left arm.

*We need to arrange for the sphere to be stored while we're here. I think the woman is the dock master. She's the one you will need to talk to.*

The woman walked up and without preamble told him "Battery and CO2 Recharge is 35, parkin' it will be two dollars an hour, 25 a day or 150 for seven days. What'ill be?"

"Hey Bess, it's a Fontaine Stingray. Been a bit since saw one a them." the small man said as he walked over to it.

This place seemed fairly quiet, probably a good place to sit a bit and get the lay of the land. "A week. Won't be any problem with using it during that time, will there?

"Let us know twenty minutes ahead of time and it's no problem. Want it faster, that's a ten dollar fee."

*They charge for just about everything down here. Including using a restroom.*

*Let's hope we don't have to leave in a hurry.*

*Cash up front, Mr..."

"It's Boston, Robert Boston." he told her with a friendly smile and reached for his wallet to get payment. Behind her the security man waited with a sour expression on his face. Looked older, maybe near 50. Old cop unhappy to still be walking a beat?

The woman wasn't impressed with Booker's smile and took the money without comment. After double counting it, she gave Booker a claim ticket.

*Finally, a woman who isn't impressed by you Booker.* Elizabeth told him with an amused expression from where she stood off to the side. The dock master told Booker to have a nice day and head back the way she came. Really didn't think she cared if he had a nice day or not.

While they had been talking, the man had been fitting straps around the sphere so it could be lifted out of the dock. He finished up quickly and soon the sphere was picked to be deposited in a cradle off to the side.

As the sphere was being moved the man came up asking "Hey fella, you actually own that?"

"It's on loan from a friend."

"Nice friends you have there young fella." the copper said suspiciously as he walked up to Booker. Now he was closed the end of the box was open and it looked like it was filled with cans. Then he noticed a fuse on one of the cans. Bombs?

"So what are you doing down here with all the hardware? You, you looking to start trouble..?" The man's eye started twitching.

"Nothing of the sort Constable. Fire destroyed where I was living. This is all I have right now. Someone I know suggested I come here to get my feet back under me."

The man took a step towards Booker and the volume of his voice went up "You work of Atlas? Well do ya?" he demanded. "Because if you do..."

"Believe me, I don't work for Atlas." 'Was this fool looking for a fight?' Then he got a better look at the man's left hand. ADAM scars, and the start of welts on his face. A splicer in the early stages of ADAM sickness.

"Well you better not you young punk! I'll be watchin'!" The man's eyes seemed to glaze over. "Watchin', watchin' me. Their always watchin', always watchin' me. " With that the splicer walked away muttering to himself.

The wiry man told him "Ah, don't worry about 'em. All bark, no bite."

Booker knew better, someday the splicer was going to blow and someone would probably get dead as a result.

He told the man thanks and walked to the bay exit.

*Yeah, you better watch it you young punk. "The Constable" will be watching.* Elizabeth told him in a mischievous voice.

No one was close by so he spoke out loud, if softly. "Young punk? Nearly as old as he is."

*Booker, you don't look much over twenty years old. If I was still here, you'd have to pretend to be my brother.* She seemed amused by the idea. Probably thinking of what she fun she could have had at his expense.

"Humf. Part of me still thinks I'm in my 40's. So where is that Renascence Court you mentioned?"

*Take a left, then another left after you pass the newsstand.*

"Should pick up a paper."

*To see what the current propaganda is?*

"Yeah, need to get with current events. We're going to be here for long time."

*And you need to be able to talk like a native.*

They walked out of the bay and down a short corridor that opened up into a larger area. The space was two stories tall and to the right and ahead was an impressive glass wall that allowed you to look out across Rapture. Light, advertisements and various signs lit up the ocean, but they could see that some of the lights were broken and there was damage to some of the buildings. "Things are starting to fall apart." he murmured.

*Probably going to look a lot like Emporia before it's all over. Except instead of fire, it will be flood.* she said a bit sadly.

In the center of each glass walls was a Securis door and beyond them glass hallways that led to other parts of the city.

To the left was Prosperity Way. The main corridor was about 60 feet wide and split into two levels. The lower level seemed to be mostly commercial. Small stores, shops and businesses. The upper level looked more residential. At various points along the Way, stairs and small elevators allowed access to the upper floor.

There was less decoration in this area and it certainly was a lot less fancy than Fontaine's had been. Construction materials were a bit more varied as well. Booker could see wood in a few places as well stucco and different types of rock. Potted plants and benches where scattered about.

The war had left its marks on this place as already though. Bullet holes indicated a firefight, one store was burned out, several others were boarded up, A hole had been blown through the 2nd floor walkway in one spot and a couple of boards had been put in place as a "repair".

They took a moment to look at the people. They had all different types of clothes, but one in three had some kind of mask on and many others showed signs of ADAM scars, though not large ones. The masks they wore puzzled him. They often where flashy or had an animal theme such as a rabbit or bird. One even had a welding mask on though he certainly didn't dress like a welder. Many of the people carried pistols openly, though a few had shotguns. Some of those without guns carried some type of club or a long wooden box like the Constable had. The Tommy Gun he carried was going to draw more attention he liked.

He started to head for the newsstand when Elizabeth asked *What's with the Robert Boston name. Seems like it would stand out.*

"Used it before and because it seems so obvious, people think it must be real."

*I bet people tend to remember the name, but forget the person.*

*Some do.* He picked up a copy of the Rapture Standard and paid the older lady behind the counter. He looked at the front page. Lead story was "Prison Destroyed! Atlas's Rebels try to free Fontaine Supporters!"

*Ryan must have had them print a special edition for that.* Elizabeth said in tone both bitter and sad.

He quickly scanned the rest of the headlines. "Arcadia Under Curfew!", "Three Bandits Killed in Attack on Market Street!" and "New Target Dummy Plasmid Released!". The Yellow Press seemed to be alive and well in Rapture.

They continued on their way down Prosperity Way a short distance and it branched off to the left. A sign said North Fork. Booker glanced up and noticed there was a skylight here, but it just showed the dark ocean above. Part way down on the left side was something that Elizabeth said had not been there before. It was a large metallic instillation with a sun like pattern and a large whole in the center. Below it was straight section decorated by stylized leaves and at the very bottom was a step. It strongly reminded both of them of the heating vents the Little Sister used in the Fontaine Store.

A little further up the street and on the opposite side where two vending machines, one was a Gene Bank the other was a type he hadn't seen before. It was red and flanked by two stylized statues of little girls in dresses and mushrooms at their feet. No, not little girls. Little Sisters. A bright pink lighted sign on top of it declared it to be a "Gather's Garden". In smaller type below that, "Genetic Modifications".

Elizabeth explained. *After Ryan took over Fontaine Futuristics they started downgrading all the Gene Banks to just being able to choose which Plasmid was active. In order to purchase Plasmids and Tonics you have to use a Gather's Garden. I think the only reason they did it was to make for better advertising.*

"Look at it later. Think both of us need some sleep."

*Sleep. Tuch. I was going to sleep when I thought I was fading away, wasn't I? Seems so obvious now.*

As they passed it the Garden Machine, it blurted out "_My daddy's SMARTER than Einstein, STRONGER than Hercules and lights a fire with a SNAP of his fingers. Are you as good as my daddy, Mister? Not if you don't visit the Gatherer's Garden, you aren't!_ "

"Nother reason I knew you were Anna. She likes taking naps in the afternoon."

*I don't remember taking that many naps when I was her age.*

"She runs around a lot more than you did."

*There is that.*

They turned another corner and could see the Renascence Court. Looked much like any hotel he had seen.

"Not the Waldorf-Astoria, but it should do."

*Waldorf-Astoria?*

"A very fancy and expensive hotel in New York. Had to visit it on business a few times."

They went through the doors and into the lobby. The first thing they saw were two turrets, but they didn't react, so they continued on. Looking around, the lobby the larger than he expected. He glanced up and realized that it went up more five stories to end in glass ceiling. Balconies went around the lobby on all four sides and there were windows that looked from the rooms out into the lobby. There was a small lounge named "The Right Time Lounge" off to the one side. The desk was on the far side of the lobby from the doors. Beside the desk on the right was a wide stairway leading to the upper floors and on the other side a pair of elevators.

There had been of violence in here in the past. Burn marks and bullet holes decorated the walls and a damaged section of the floor had been roped off. One of the chandeliers that supplied light had been damaged. He figured there had been more than one fight in here. Must have put in the turrets to make sure there wouldn't be another.

At the moment there were over a dozen people in the lobby. A few of them seemed to be passing through while the others were seated at different overstuffed chairs or couches scattered about. A small group was gathered around a low coffee table just outside the Lounge arguing about something. He had a feeling it was politics given the heat coming off of it.

"Always bad to mix drinking and politics." He said in a low voice.

*I read that New York politics were... interesting when you lived there.*

"Humph. Interesting is an understatement. Corrupt is a better term. Not uncommon for politicians to buy votes with drinks and some of the gangs worked for elected officials. Or they worked for the gangs."

They had gotten close to the desk which stifled any further conversation. Near the desk stood a man in what looked like some kind of uniform. Not Rapture Security though. A nearby sign declared "Security Provided by Ander's And Sons Private Security Service". The guard was only about 5', 9" but looked very heavily muscled and his skin had an un-natural sheen to it. Something told Booker that in a fight this guard would ignore the pistol at his side in order to his hands on the enemy.

There was no one at the counter and he hit the bell which rang loudly.

In a cloud of red and black smoke the clerk appeared. The splicer had a white mask with gold decorations on it that covered the top half of his face. It couldn't hid the red blotches of ADAM scars which crept down his face to his jaw line. He wore a white shirt, a black vest and pants with a bright blue bow tie.

It had been hard for him not to draw a gun and start shooting at him.

"Welcome to the Renascence Court, sir. My name is Charles and how may I be of assistance." The clerk said in a well-practiced professional voice.

"Like a room for a week."

"And how many beds, sir."

"Just one."

"Kitchenette?"

*Say yes.*

"Yes."

Charles quoted a price, along with a hundred dollar "damage" deposit and gave him a contract to sign. He looked it.

*Looks like a standard rooming contract. Don't see anything out of the ordinary.*

*Contracts to rent a room?*

*They have contracts for everything down here, including going to bed with someone.*

*Kinda takes the fun out it.*

He signed the contract and was given a key to Room 428, which meant climbing up four flights stairs. He started up them.

_Being the best at what you do can really take it out you. So unwind! At Fort Frolic: gamble, shop, take in a show or meet a new friend, all at Fort Frolic. Fort Frolic: where the best and brightest celebrate success._

*You could take the elevator you know.*

"See more this way. And a Kitchenette?"

*Well, you will probably need to do some of your own cooking. And maybe teach me a little. Anna will need to know how someday.*

*And why do think Anna will remember?*

*You said she remembers my skills.* (1)

*More or less. Needs to try to do something and then she realizes that she can do it. Not as good as you were, still has to re-learn them some. Found out about it when I had a present for her and locked it up, but she wanted a see very badly. I walked in just as she finished picking the lock with a hairpin.*

*So how often is she picking locks?*

*Mostly just around the house when she thinks I'm hiding something from her. Wised up and started to change locks every couple of months to give her a new challenge.

*You're Encouraging her to pick locks?* She sounded slightly scandalized.

*Hey, not like I'm making her lock picks. She just enjoys doing it. And then she takes them apart and puts 'em back together.* He paused a moment. *So, what tipped you off?*

*Suchong. Right after he took Anna he needed a cage with a lock that couldn't be picked.*

*Kinda hoping you hadn't made the connection.* 'You've been through enough already.'

*There is no need to protect me Booker and I have a right to know.* she told him in an angry tone of voice. *I've been imprisoned before and I can take it.* She paused a moment then spoke again in a sadder tone of voice. *I guess I'm still in a prison now of sorts. The Little Sister Conditioning.*

'She right, she doesn't want or need me to coddle her.' *Wonder how effective the conditioning is.*

*What? I see what you mean. If Anna's mind was totally controlled by the conditioning, I wouldn't be talking to you, would I?*

*Anna's a child, but she was you at one time, an adult. In some ways she doesn't think like a child.* 'Just hope she doesn't remember much when this is all over.'

*So what did Anna do for you to figure that out?* She sounded curious as well as a little irritated. Must be getting near time for her to sleep.

*Wasn't Anna. Realized that compared to the first time around, I don't think the same. One reason I think of myself as being older I guess. Not really sure how, just that I do. Only noticed it with Anna a little while ago.*

*So Anna's... acting older than she is?* That worried her.

*Anna acts like the five year old girl she is, don't worry about it.*

*Good. Relief. I'm starting to.. feel sleepy I guess. Night, Booker.* She sounded not exactly happy, but satisfied.

"Night Elizabeth." he thought she was asleep before he finished talking. She needed the sleep, been a quite a day.

He walked up the door to his room and opened it. His room was smaller than his old office on Bowery St, but it had a bed, a bathroom, kitchenette, couple of chairs and a table. All he needed right now. He put some cans by the door so that is anyone tried to open it they would fall and act as an alarm.

Took off his suit jacket and was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

-Elizabeth-

Everything was bright and shiny. Where? Doesn't seem real. She could hear something, singing? Then the world fades in and she's looking at a newspaper.

*Good morning Booker.* She tried to sound chipper, but the memory of the dream hung on somehow.

*Morning Elizabeth. Feeling ok?* he asked as he got out his watch. She had slept for nearly ten hours.

*Guess Anna overslept.*

*Sure it was needed. I just got up 'bout a half hour ago.* Booker put down the paper to reveal the remains of some canned rations.

*You didn't cook anything?*

He chuckled slightly. "No pots or dishes."

*Guess that would be a problem. Anything in the paper?*

Booker's mood darkened. "Ryan didn't just kill all the prisoners. All the guards down there are listed as dead."

*Ryan killed his own people.* It didn't surprise her, just was depressing.

"And blamed Atlas for it. Makes for good propaganda and got rid of some people he had no further use of. Something a bit more positive is that Arcadia is closed down for an "in depth search for Atlas's Bandits."

*Ryan's people must have gone down to prison and talked to the guards.*

"Had to send someone down to get the Little Sister and the Big Daddy."

*They probably told the Big Daddy to walk back to Rapture.* It had been a slow realization, but she felt nearly as bad for the Big Daddies as the Little Sisters. Dozens, hundreds of Songbirds. No, even worse than Songbird. He had so loved to fly. Fink had allowed him that at least. She didn't think the Daddies even had that. *At least Ryan's looking for Clarice's people in the wrong place. So what are we doing today?*

"Getting our bearings. Some dishes, more clothes, maps, a pistol, look at the Air Grabber, find out what we can about these "Little Wonders" places and anything on the Little Sisters. Should have records someplace."

*Getting those records won't be easy. It took me months to find Sally.*

"Might Cohen have the information?"

*Going to Cohen would be a very bad idea. He met Comstock before sending us down to the prison and he's an unstable murderer. Best to stay FAR away from him.* She also feared what Cohen might make Booker do to get such information, if he even had it.

"Yeah, best to stay away from where Comstock was known. Looks like we have to do some breaking and entering."

*Think you can do it this time without alerting all of Rapture?* she teased.

Booker pretended to be offended. "I Have learned a Little subtly since I went to Columbia."

*Yeah, I noticed that when you took out Ryan's Security Guards before you destroyed the Lutece Device. Though I have say, I very much enjoyed you telling Ryan off."

"Felt a little like talking to Comstock actually. Ryan may not be an alternate version of Comstock, but get the feeling they're a lot alike."

*You're not wrong about that. Ryan's is as big a fanatic as Comstock, just with a different set of books.*

"Afraid I'm going to have to read them to know the lay of the land" he said sourly. "Let's take a look at this Air Grabber."

Booker took out the Air Grabber and examined it a few moments. It was a little different than the ones she had found for herself and Comstock. The case was made of heavier steel and didn't have "Fontaine-Vac" on the side. Some of the parts looked like they might have been specifically made for it. Someone had gone out of their way to make a high quality Air Grabber. She wondered who would make the effort though.

He revved it up a moment to test it, then swung it around a little to get a feel for it. "Ah, do you know how these things actually work?"

She had to think a moment on that one. *Actually, I don't. None of my books even mentioned them and I never really thought about it. Didn't Comstock know?*

"No, left that kinda thing to Fink."

*Magnets maybe?* This was interesting. Something she had used so often, but didn't have any idea how it worked.

"What I thought as well when I first used it. Now, not so sure."

*Easy enough to test. Just need some steel or iron.* 'Time for a few experiments.'

"We have some." Booker stood up, walked over to the neatly made bed and place his Revolver and Tommy Gun on the floor beside it.

*Going to use those?*

"They're metal, and it shouldn't hurt them." He said as he positioned himself as far away as he could from the bed. After a moment he pointed the Air Grabber at the Tommy Gun and revved it up the system. The weapon flew towards them and Booker had to grab the Tommy Gun before it got hit by spinning teeth of the Air Grabber.

*Hmm. It does seem to work by magnets.*

"But the pistol didn't move, shouldn't that have been attracted too?" He pointed the Air Grabber at the wood chair and it didn't move. "Had to try." he responded to her unanswered question.

*Point the Air Grabber near the pistol and then move it to point directly at it.*

Booker did as he was asked and only when the Air Grabber was pointed directly at the revolver did it start to move.

*I think they found a way to tightly focus the magnetic field. That's why when you activate the Air Grabber, nothing else but the target is affected. I would like to know how they did it. Do you think you could find a screwdriver and ….*

"Worry about that later." Booker told her in a slightly amused tone. He looked at the Air Grabber again. "Glad I never had my Sky-Hook set to latch onto a fright hook while I was fighting a Handyman."

*That…wouldn't have been a good thing. But if you can find large steel object you can jump to it just as you do with fright hooks.*

"So long as the Grabber has something to latch on to at least. Don't think trying to hang on to something with just the magnets would be a good idea."

*Should at least give you a little added mobility.*

"Really want to avoid it if I can. Might attract attention."

*With people like the Spider Splicers around, I doubt it. I do have a question though, why another pistol?*

"The revolver's nice, but fires slow and can't carry much ammo. Not good in a fight if it lasts very long. The Tommy Gun isn't a bad weapon, but big and bulky and attracts attention. Down here at least."

*Yes, the Contestable seemed a bit upset with what you were carrying yesterday. He was probably jealous he didn't have one.*

"Don't think he needs it though with all those homemade grenades he has. Also if I'm crawling into air ducts, the machine gun doesn't seem to fit very well."

*You have a point there. If I remember correctly, there's a gunsmith down here at the other end of the street on the North Fork.*

"Never went in it I suppose."

*No. I only came down here for the bookstore. Maurice could get just about any book I wanted.*

"What me to give him a message?"

*Really didn't know him that well and it might be dangerous bringing up my name.*

"Guess you're right." He seemed a little sad for a moment.

Booker put the Tommy Gun, most of its ammunition and the Skyhook in the closet and went to the door.

*Booker, I notice you're carrying less ammunition than you did in Columbia.*

"Less ammunition means I can carry another weapon along with the First Aid Kits and EVE. Seems to be a good trade off at the moment." He told her as he went out the door.

After locking the door he put a small piece of thread at the top of the door. If anyone opened the door the thread would fall and Booker would know if someone had been in the room while he was gone. Simple, but effective.

*Don't trust these people very much. I don't blame you.*

"Only one person I trust completely and that's you."

End Chapter 22

(1) People with amnesia still are able to use the skills they learned, even though they don't remember learning the skill. Even people who are unable to form new long term memories can learn and retain new skills. Anna has all of Elizabeth's skills such as lock picking, singing and playing some musical instruments, but needs to relearn how to use them to some extent.


	23. Chapter 23

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 23

-Elizabeth-

Going shopping in Rapture.

She certainly hadn't been a shopaholic like some of the other people she knew at Cohen's. But at times it had been a nice change of pace to get out of her apartment. She had wondered how strange it might be for Booker, but decided it would probably almost be normal for him. He was from New York City and even down here the still mentioned how massive department stores were.

They went down the hall and decided to take the elevator this time. In less than two minutes they were in the lobby and heading out the main doors. There were more people around now and they seemed intent on going about their business normally. But when she looked closely, there was an undercurrent of nervousness and fear.

"Want to take a look at the Gatherer's Garden?" he asked her quietly.

*Why not. Most of these people seem to be spliced up. Be a good idea to know what they could be spliced with.*

As they walked to the Garden machine they passed a splicer in heavy coveralls. He had his pistol out and spinning the cylinder while humming off key. Booker changed his path so that the splicer wouldn't be directly behind him.

"Some of these people are nearly as far gone as the ones down below." He murmured to her.

*Because of the war, people want ADAM. Prices go up and many can't afford it anymore.*

"And get ADAM sickness."

She knew he was thinking the same thing she was.

*Could we have gotten more people out of there?*

"I… don't think so."

*I don't think so either. I just hope we're both right.* Booker stopped in front of the Gatherer's Garden.

"Let's see what's in here."

He activated the vending machine and a list of products came up. Electro Bolt, Incinerate!, Telekinesis, Cyclone Trap and others. More than a few she didn't recognize. The Gene Tonic list was a much longer list, but a few that caught her eye were Armored Shell, Security Expert, Brain Boost and EVE Saver. In addition to the base Plasmid or Tonic, some of them had upgrades or modifications such as one that allowed the creation of fireballs with Incinerate!.

"Uh, that's quite a lot."

*I had no idea they could develop so many in such a short period of time.* She was more than a little surprised. Suchong had been the expert on Plasmid creation, but they had been able to create all these without him? Then it occurred to her that many of these Plasmids may not have much testing done on them.

"None of the drinkable Plamids are listed. Not even an upgrade for them."

*Ryan must have totally discontinued their sale. It takes ten times more ADAM to make a drinkable version than one that can be injected.*

"Wonder how Fink was able to make any money off of them." His eyes shifted over to look at the prices.

*The basic Incinerate! is 3,000 dollars or 60 ADAM?* One ADAM was worth 250 dollars now.

"Prices went up?"

*Can't say I kept track of the prices, but they weren't nearly that high before. I didn't think they accepted ADAM as payment either.*

"Moving over to an economy based on ADAM?"

*Seems likely. ADAM is nearly as big a necessity as air or food for many of these people.*

"And in short supply which makes it highly valuable." He walked over to the Gene Bank and looked it over. As she had predicted it only allowed for the choosing of what Plasmid or Tonic that was active.

The readout it gave on Booker showed that he had Possession, Bucking Bronco, Devil's Kiss and showed an error message for Charge. No surprise there. He had all open slots for Gene Tonics.

"If we found an older Gene Bank, I wonder if might still have the upgrades we could use?"

*Maybe. But finding it would probably be difficult. What do you think you need an upgrade for?"

"Bronco. The Boost upgrade would leave anyone I hit in the air a lot longer."

*Easier for you to knock them out.* That sounded reasonable, unfortunately.

_Don't forget: anybody offering you a hand of charity has their other hand in your pocket. Everyman for himself. It's the Rapture way._

Booker looked vaguely upward to the source of the announcement. "Think I can understand why people hate hearing those all the time." They left the machines and headed back down the street past the newsstand and to the windows that looked over Rapture.

*Sightseeing?*

"Getting my barring's. Kinda lost them with all the time in the sphere." Booker's eyes picked out several signs and building to use as reference points. The he looked at the two hallways glass tunnel. Both the Securis doors were open now and there was a constant stream of people using them. Many of the people seemed to exit one tunnel and walk into the other. Others would make their way to destinations on Prosperity Way itself. Two Constables watched the people walk by and occasional stopped one to question them.

*The tunnel on the right goes to the Welcome Center and the other one will take us to Neptune's Bounty. The Welcome Center will be where the younger versions of us arrived in 1960. From the Welcome Center we can get to most parts of the city with little difficulty.*

"So long as the cops don't stop us." Booker noted.

*Afraid you won't be able to talk your way out of it?* Seemed unusual for Booker to be so negative.

"Talking's not the problem. The person the cops are talking to now? When they stopped him he got something out of his pocket to show them."

*An Identification Card. And you don't have one. You could always say it was destroyed in the fire that burned your apartment.*

"They might buy that, but won't work for long. Can't go get a real one and no contacts to point me to an expert."

*An expert? In what?*

"Forgery. Little bit of luck and the right tools might be able to do it myself. Wish I had thought to take some cards from Ryan's people."

*You're a forger? And how did you pick up that particular skill?* 'This ought to be a good story.'

"Learned from Alfonse Lucardi. His son had gone missing and I was able to get him back home safe and sound. Decided to take some lessons as payment. Nothing fancy, just enough to copy simple stuff. Got a lot better at spotting fakes though."

*Next you'll be telling me that you're a pick pocket as well.*

He chuckled a little. "Seems more your style than mine." *Hey!* "A few of the others did try to learn actually. Didn't work out. Hands are too big."

*More your style just to hit them over the head then.*

"Yeah, I guess."

They turned away from the window and its view of Rapture and headed down the Way. Pharaoh's Fortune was doing a good business even at this hour. King's Pawn was busy as well and she noticed several people leave the pawn shop and walk into the casino next door.

Booker noticed as well and shook his head a little in dismay.

*I never really understood what people see in gambling. I know that some people seem to get a thrill out of it, but it seems wasteful to me.*

"People gamble for different reasons. Some people are addicted to the thrill, others are convinced that the next bet will be the "Big Win" that will solve all their problems. Me, it was a way to forget problems for a little while. Problems were always there when I was done and usually worse. Same when I drank." He still sounded ashamed.

*Paris.* When it was put that way, it wasn't hard to understand at all.

"Paris?"

*Paris was my gambling, my drinking. Going there, it didn't solve anything.* The shame in her voice matched Bookers.

"You left your Paris, I stopped gambling and drinking. Most of those people probably never will and won't even try." he said sadly.

On the other side of the street an artist using Incinerate! to draw pictures in the air with fire. The only people that paid attention were the patrons of the Le Nouveau Temps bar that she performed in front of. They didn't seem happy with her performance.

Booker moved to keep his distance from the potential conflict when they heard heavy thumping sounds. Others heard it as well and a few looked down towards the North Fork of the Way. Most people ignored it though. Moments later a huge figure came around the corner. It was clad in an armored diving suit and carried an oversized Rivet Gun. A sickly yellow light shown from the helmet's faceplates.

*That's the other type of Big Daddy I mentioned before. It's called it a "Rosie" for some reason. They do repair work on the buildings as well as protect the Little Sisters.*

Booker stood back to let the Big Daddy walk past while his eyes searched for any weakness. He watched it as it went up to the odd decoration and pounded on it with its left hand. Moments later a Little Sister crawled out.

It wasn't Anna.

*Vents for Little Sisters. They must have them all over Rapture now.*

Booker turned away and started heading down the way. "Let's go visit that bookstore of yours."

*Any particular reason?*

Ryan's voice came over the speakers. "_I had THOUGHT I had left the parasites of Moscow behind me. I had THOUGHT I had left the Marxist altruists to their collective farms and their five-year plans. But, as the German fools threw themselves on Hitler's sword for the good of the Reich, the Americans drank deeper and deeper of the Bolshevik poison, spoon-fed to them by Roosevelt and his New Dealers._"

"Well, That. No idea who Hitler is, a Bolshevik or what "New Dealers" are. Know the Roosevelt's of course, but not the one Ryan is talking about."

*Not a lot of history books down here. Or at least ones that aren't propaganda.*

There was the sounds of a scuffle behind them and someone yelling. Then a low sound that was part moan and part yell. They turned around to see what was going on. She was sure Booker was ready to draw.

The Little Sister was hiding behind the Big Daddy screaming "Don't let him get me!" while a man, clearly a splicer cried "I just want a little! Please!" He tried to push the Daddy aside to get at the Sister.

The Rosie used the Rivet Gun to roughly shove the splicer back and made another moaning cry clearly intended as a warning.

The splicer didn't get the hint.

He drew his pistol and started to fire wildly at the Big Daddy. He got three shots off before the Rosie returned fire. The high powered rivets quickly dispatching the splicer. But as the first splicer fell another one yelled "It's distracted! Get her!" and three more splicers moved to attack.

The first one charged the Big Daddy from the side and hit its helmet with a length of pipe. Two other splicers, a woman with a shotgun and a man with a pistol opened fire on the Rosie, not caring if they hit the splicer with the club.

Booker took a step towards the battle. *No! don't get involved. The Big Daddy might consider you a threat and attack you. He can handle this.*

Momentarily staggered by the attacks the Rosie quickly retaliated. It used the butt of the Rivet Gun to smash the attacker with the pipe away and turned to throw something at the splicer with the shotgun. She wasn't sure what it was for a moment until it exploded, killing the woman instantly. The splicer with the pistol tried to run away, but was swiftly cut down by fire from the Rivet Gun.

While the other two splicers died, the one with the pipe regained his feet and again struck the Big Daddy from behind. The Rosie spun around and quickly ended the splicer with a few more shots.

"Going to be a problem to take one of those down." Booker muttered.

*The grenades are new. I never heard of them being able to use those before.*

"They seem bigger than the ones the Constable has. Be nice to get a few."

Safe now, the Little Sister came out from behind the Big Daddy. "Mr. Bubbles! An Angel!" she cried and pointed at one of the dead splicers.

They turned around to go to the bookstore. Neither of them needing a reminder of what Anna had been turned into and what she was being forced to do. She was glad Booker hadn't thought of the possibility that Anna might have gone to find her body near Artemis Suites. The thought that Anna could have been drinking her blood would only hurt him for no purpose.

They passed a hotdog stand that had collapsed due to combat damage. She had actually eaten a hotdog from that stand when she had been here before. She hated to admit it, but the one Booker had bought her in Columbia had tasted a lot better. As they passed he sniffed and took a harder look at it.

*Something wrong?*

"This happened recently, three days at the most. Someone's still in there."

*Three days and they haven't moved the body? Things were better in the prison.*

"Yeah."

They continued on. Ahead of them where the Way split into North and South Forks. Cho's Groceries was still open and had a new Circus of Values in front of it.

"Luck." Booker murmured.

*Luck? Luck to who?*

"Sorry. The grocer has symbols for luck and prosperity on his store." He told her as he scratched the left side of face.

*Are you telling me you can read Chinese now?*

"Well, a little. Speak it better than I can read it."

*That could have been helpful in Finkton.*

"Didn't know it then. Only started learning this time around."

*Any particular reason?*

"My old office was more or less in Chinatown. Helped being able to speak it a few times."

They turned onto the South Fork. Tyler Metal Works was on the right and Kleen Pharmacy on the left. She knew that Tyler would probably open later, but Kleen should already be open and it wasn't. Ahead was bookstore, but something didn't look right.

"Lost in Time Books?" Booker said reading the sign a slight tone of disbelief in his voice.

*Kind of ironic I'll admit.*

As they got closer to the bookstore they could see it was closed. But she knew it should be open by now. Had something happened? There was a sign on the door.

"Closed by Order of the Council for Sedition."

*Sedition? It's a Book Store!* This was outrageous!

"Which can spread idea's that Ryan doesn't like. Comstock had a list of banned and approved books too."

*Nothing for us here now. The gunsmith is on the north fork, providing it's still open.*

Booker turned and headed back the way they came. *So what other languages do you speak Booker?*

"Well, uh, should be able to speak French."

*French?* 'Should be?'

He seemed a bit embarrassed. "Never actually tried mind you, but Comstock was fluent."

*You're.. No, you wouldn't joke about that. Why would Comstock have learned French?*

"Believe it not he liked France, a lot. Do you remember his quarters on the Hand of the Prophet? His desk..."

*Wait, let me think a moment.* She visualized the room in her mind and she was standing inside it again. The room was tan, except the desk, which was in full color. She looked at the desk. A picture of Lady Comstock and another of the Eiffel Tower. On the blotter were papers, they were unclear because she had not looked at them closely, but they seemed to be in French.

She let the visualization fall apart and was again looking through Booker's eyes. *There was a picture of the Eiffel Tower on his desk and papers are in French.*

"That's good." He sounded impressed. "Comstock liked France enough that he made sure you had a lot of French books into your library."

*Are you saying that I liked Paris because of Comstock?!*

"In a way I guess. Don't let Comstock change what you think about Paris. Not Paris's fault Comstock liked it."

*No, that's not it. After I came back from my dream Paris and realized it had just been a dream, I... It just doesn't mean what it did before. Going to Paris was really nothing more than the dream of a child I suppose.*

"People need dreams Elizabeth. Growing up in that tower, you more than most."

_Can anyone ever make you feel like Sander Cohen can? Rapture's most beloved musical artist returns with "Why Even Ask?", his greatest album yet. Songs of love. Songs of joy. Songs of passion. Buy "Why Even Ask?" and invite Sander Cohen into your home today._

Invite Cohen into your home? What a revolting concept.

By now they were walking up the North Fork towards a small plaza and the Deep Blue Sea Diner. Boards covered some of the windows, but it still seemed to be open. On the right side of the square was a U-Invent and a Securis door that led to Fortune Avenue. There seemed to more damage from fighting here and most businesses here were closed or had been destroyed. A Spider Splicer was crawling on the wall above one of the ruined stores as people went along their business below her. On the far side of the plaza was another Little Sister Vent.

"Where's the gunsmith?"

*Other side of the plaza and around the corner to the right.* * So, what kind of dreams does Anna have?*

Booker made an amused sound. "Which day of the week? She has a lot of dreams and they're always changing. Sometimes it's traveling all over the world, being a Doctor or painting. She's young." The simple joy in his voice made her want to smile.

*So where does she think she wants to go when she travels?"

*Exploring I guess. The Pyramids in Egypt, jungles, islands, all over.*

*Sounds nice, seeing the world.* More out there than just Paris.

"Just one of dreams she has." she could hear the smile he wore, but his voice darkened. "Hope she still has them when this is all over."

*She's strong, Booker. And you'll be with her.* 'You really don't know how important that is, do you Booker?'

"Yeah, there's that." He tried to sound confident, but the undercurrent of worry remained.

They got closer to the Diner and the older Constable they had met yesterday came out of it. Upon spotting Booker, he fixed him with a harsh glare, but didn't move to approach.

*Better watch out Booker, The Constable is watching you.* she half joked with him.

*Long as he stays over there, not going to worry much.*

The left the plaza and entered the far end portion of the North Fork. It was mostly made up of small stalls and booths other than the gunsmith. All the stalls where empty and one looked burned out. One stall had a man wrapped in blankets huddled against the back wall muttering to himself. There were few people about, unlike the rest of the Way. It was darker here as some of the lights had been destroyed. Moments later they stood in front of "Marksman's Weapons".

The store didn't have any windows and was exceedingly plain compared to the average business in Rapture which usually had bright neon lights proclaiming themselves. This business just had a simple sign with a few lights illuminating it. The door looked to have weather a number of assaults and had a peephole.

*I wonder why there's no bright neon signs?*

"The best in this business sometimes don't advertise much sometimes."

*Why wouldn't they advertise?*

"Word of mouth works best for them." Booker went up to the door and pushed on it. "Owners careful." he said under his breath as he pushed the buzzer and stepped back to await a response from inside.

-Booker-

Took a couple of minutes for a shadow to obscure the light in the peephole. A moment later gravely older voice came over a hidden speaker "_What'er looking for?_"

'Right down to business.' "Looking for a pistol and have some work double checked."

"_Don't know you. Somebody send you?_"

'Real careful.' "Had a friend who heard about you. Thought I'd take a look."

"_You armed?_"

*He certainly asks a lot of questions.* Elizabeth said in a disapproving tone.

"Who isn't these days?"

"_Put them on the table after you go through the door. No tricks._"

A buzzing sound went off and Booker was able to open the door. As he expected, it was armored and rather heavy. The door opened into a small entryway with another door at the other end. To the right was a small wood table where he deliberately put down the shotgun and revolver.

After he stepped away from the table another buzzer sounded and the inner door opened up to allow Booker to step through. At the far side of the room was a grizzled old man in a heavy leather apron standing behind a counter giving Booker the once over. The counter went around the room and on the walls where all sorts of weapons. Pistols of all different types, shotguns, hunting rifles and even a few Tommy Guns. The counter prevented costumers from being able to reach out and pick up any of the weapons.

Also behind the counter were a number of doors. From the one behind the old man came the sound of running machinery. 'Should be a hidden firing port, ah two of them.' He focused his eyes on each of them for a moment so Elizabeth knew.

"Names Jacob Marksman, welcome to Marksman's Weapons. What can I do for you?" the man behind the counter said in a gravelly voice as Booker walked up. Seemed slightly friendlier now he thought he had a costumer.

As he got closer to the counter he noted that parts of the counter had a glass top and there were more weapons inside. Even with only a quick glance he could tell they were high quality arms that had been extensively engraved and inlayed with gold or silver.

"Boston, Robert Boston. Looking for a pistol."

"Don't like that cannon you have now?" Marksman's responded as started walking over to Booker's right and the display wall that held the pistols.

"It's fine, though I would like some work checked out on it. Lookin' for an automatic with a fairly large clip and good rate of fire."

That seemed to satisfy Marksman for the moment. Elizabeth was over to the side, but seemed more interested in the man behind the counter than the guns. Not surprised by that.

"Most people seem to go for these .38s. Simple to use and don't cost all that much. Good for people with the shakes." the old man monologued. "You're a bit different though." and gave Booker another hard look. "These are the automatics I have at the moment." he gestured to about twenty weapons on the far end and they walked over to take a closer look.

Several of the pistols he recognized as the same type adopted by the US Army in 1911, though with a few small modifications. A couple others were types he didn't recognize, but had the logo of a well known Italian gun maker on the grips. He glanced at one weapon on the top right away from the others, seemingly forgotten.

*What? That looks like a...* She was surprised has he was.

The weapon looked a lot like the Broadsider with a lot of upgrades. The magazine was larger, the barrel had been reinforced and the frame was heavier, something on the end of the muzzle, a small scope and it was decorated with engravings.(1)

"May I see that one?" he asked pointing to the modified pistol.

The old man seemed surprised. "Hum? Almost forgot 'bout that one. Had some rich boy say he saw it in "a vision in the air" and wanted one just like it." He made a disgusted sound. "Never came back to pick it up."

*We both know what the "vision in the air" was.*

Marksman handed the pistol to Booker who *very* carefully looked it over. Construction's solid. Design was just a heavier version of what he was familiar with. Inlay design familiar for some reason, a dragon? He ejected the box magazine and studied it a moment, then took a close look at the barrel. Different caliber than Broadsider, larger.

".45 ACP?" he asked the man.(2)

"Yep, you got a good eye. Magazine holds twelve rounds. Did some work to boost how much damage it does too." The old man seemed to warming up to him a little. He looked again at the decorations and his mind came to a screeching halt for a moment. He remembered where he'd seen style before. 'Can't be.' He quickly checked the Marks. There it was, plain as day.

His expression must have betrayed something because Marksman asked "Got a problem?"

Covering fast he replied "Sorry, didn't expect this to be made in China. All the modifications were done by you correct?" It was hard, very hard to not bust out laughing. Only Elizabeth would be able to get the joke though.

"Yep, it's a good weapon. Most people hear it's from China and don't want to touch it." He took another look at Booker.

*Something wrong Booker?* She hadn't known what the Mark meant.

*Tell you later.*

Tested the feel and balance in his hand. Bit heavier than a Broadsider of course, but not at all a surprise.

"Any way I could test fire this? I'll supply the ammunition."

Marksman though a moment. "Humph. Be worth it to get rid of it."

He let Booker behind the counter and through one of the doors as a younger man came through one of the other doors with a shotgun to follow them. Through the door was a small one lane shooting range. Marksman lay the pistol down and handed the magazine to Booker who quickly fed rounds into it.

Careful not to make any sudden moves that would startle the man with the shotgun, he loaded the pistol and aimed at the target about 40 feet downrange. He fired once to get the feel, then two more times. Good accuracy. Balance was better than he thought it would be and the thing on the end of the muzzle seemed to compensate for the recoil some so the barrel didn't rise as much. Considering all the modification the pistol handled much better than he thought it would.

The scope was in a bit of an odd place instead of being on top, it was mounted on the right side barrel.

He fired once more just using the scope, the rounded hitting the target just to the left and below where he had aimed, just where it should. Someone had done a good job sighting the pistol in.

After pausing a moment he fired off the last eight rounds as fast as he could at the target. Fired a little slower than the Broadsider, but that was to be expected.

*Impressive as always Booker. That target isn't going to bother anyone ever again.*

"What's the price?" he asked. When he didn't get a response he turned around. Marksman was gone, but the man with the shotgun was still there.

"Mr. Marksman will be back in a few minutes. Had another costumer to take care of. If you want, you can practice some more while we wait."

*So what's so strange about this pistol Booker.*

*Some work was done by someone we kinda know.*

*Really, who would *we* know…Chen Lin?* Her eyes widened when she realized who he was talking about.

*His Mark's on it.*

*I hope he isn't in Rapture.*

*Doubt it. Would have been an old man when this place was built.*

*Good. I would hate to think he got fooled into coming to Rapture.*

He had reloaded the magazine while they had talked and spent the next minute putting them through the center of the target.

The man watching him asked "Where did you learn to shoot an old gun like that?" He seemed curious and a little concerned.

"A good gun is a good gun."

"Surprised you haven't hired on with someone."

"Got more important things to take care of."

"Didn't mean nothing. Some people will pay for talent like yours. I might know someone."

"Don't Bother." He put a little steel in his voice. He was starting to get a bad feeling.

Marksman came back a moment later muttering under his breath about not enough time.

He turned and holding up the pistol said "How much?"

The old man looked up half in surprise. "Oh, sorry. Um. 220."

" I'll take it."

"Let's get back out front then."

As they walked back out front and Marksman took the money and wished "Mr. Boston" a good day and ushered him out of the shop. Moments later they were standing outside the shop with the door closed tightly behind them.

*Marksman wanted you out of there. He didn't ask about the work you wanted to have checked. You didn't bring it up either.*

"Yeah. Wanted out of there myself." He told her as they started to walk away.

*Any particular reason?*

"Bad feeling. Not sure why." He took out the auto pistol and looked at it a moment. Chen Lin had supplied weapons to the Vox. It was almost like this weapon had been placed there like a warning.

*I suspect that Marksman is supplying guns to Atlas.*

"Atlas?"

*I heard at least four different lathes and some other machines back there.*

"Yeah, lot of production for a small shop."

*Ryan has his own production facilities, so he wouldn't be ordering from a place like this. Marksman was worried about time which would indicate a big large order he was having trouble meeting the deadline for.*

"And Marksman's assistant was likely trying to point me to Atlas. Don't think Ryan would hire right off the street."

*Might I suggest we don't come back here again?*

"You might and that's a suggestion I'll take. Let's find someplace that sells clothes."

*And dishes.*

They turned the corner to head back down to Prosperity Way. And right around the corner, close enough to touch, was a Tear.

End Chapter 23

(1) This weapon was inspired by concept artwork done by the fantastic Mauricio Tejerina for the Broadsider. The Broadsider is of course based on the Mouser C96. There is also a second source of inspiration for the gun in a popular movie that is referenced in Bioshock Infinite. See if you can figure out what it is. ;)

(2) There actually was a version of the Mouser C96 made in 1929-1930's China that used the .45 ACP round. The same round used for the Thompson Submachine Gun, which they also produced a copy of. The Shanxi Type 17 (as it was called) used stripper clips instead of a box magazine, but I don't think people will mind if I cheated a little in that regard.


	24. Chapter 24

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 24

-Booker-

A Tear in Rapture? He had gotten used to not having these things showing up. He took as step back to study it. Couldn't see anything through it but it had a reddish color to it similar to the one in Albert Finks place in Emporia.

*When I came to Rapture random tears started open here just as they did in Columbia. But I have no…*

"Haven't seen one a of them air holes before, have ya." A voice from above called interrupting Elizabeth.

He looked to the source of a voice. A woman, maybe 35 years old with long black hair and wearing a low cut cocktail dress was leaning on the railing of the level above them.

"Actually have, just not recently." Booker called back to her.

"That one plays music sometimes. Music like I never heard before. I'm glad it's back. You should wait around to hear it. Can hear it reeeal nice up here." She said as she gave Booker an openly inviting look.

He smiled politely back at her. "Thanks for the offer, but I have business to attend to. Maybe some other time."

"Any time you want, honey, any time." She told him with a hungry smile on her face.

*Can we go now?* Elizabeth didn't sound at all happy and had a mulish expression.

They continued on their way. "So what about the Tear?"

*As I Was Saying, when I came here, tears started opening. But after the Big Daddy killed me they

should have all closed. I know didn't see any when I came back to rescue Sally.*

"The Tear Machine. When it overloaded…"

*it could have caused an instability that reopened the tears. That's possible, but they shouldn't stay open for long though.*

"Not like we can use them for anything."

*True. We can't open them to pull anything through. All we can get will be some music and a quick view to some other time and place.*

"Lot a' help that'll be. Need someplace else to go shopping. No place to get cloths or dishes here."

*Or fake ID cards.*

"Guess we could try Fortune Avenue."

*Don't think we have much of a choice. Taking the sphere or going to the Welcome Center risks having Security ask for an ID card you don't have.*

"Ever been to this Fortune Avenue?"

*No, I only came down to Prosperity Way because of the book store. It's about as far away from the apartment as I went.*

"Think your belongings might still be in your apartment?"

*I doubt it. There were only couple more days on the rental agreement left when I died. I bet the landlord had someone else in there 15 minutes after it was up. What were you thinking of?*

"Those lights you mentioned, maybe a few of your books." He decided to take a look at the U-Invent before going to Fortune Avenue. "So what were your plans after you got done with Comstock?"

It was almost a minute before she answered. *I didn't have any. I was just so focused on making Comstock pay, I didn't think about anything after that.* she said regretfully. *Maybe I could have gone to Paris? No...I don't think that would have turned out very well. Huh, I could go anywhere in the world, any world, any time, but had no place I wanted to go. No friends, no… home.*

"When we get out of here we'll make a home, don't you worry about that. Let's see how this U-Invent thing works."

Seemed simple enough. Chose something you want to make and insert the materials listed in the formula and what you wanted dropped out. He wasn't sure how you get .38 caliber anti-personnel rounds from two Rubber Hoses, three Shell Casings and a screw. He started going down the list.

*Wait Booker. Gene Tonics? But these don't seem to require any ADAM.*

"Somehow doubt that will make them any safer to use."

*No, these effects would require altering your body chemistry in a way I don't understand. I doubt the long term effects would be healthy for you.*

"Don't have the materials to make them with anyways."

*Let's see what we can find on Fortune Avenue.*

_Andrew Ryan asks you a simple question: are you a man or a slave?_

They walked to the Securis that led to the Avenue. It opened easily though revealing a wide concrete corridor with minimal decoration. Along the top of it ran several large pipes and some cables. The air seemed a little musty and a few scrapes of paper littered the area.

*Doesn't look there's been much traffic through here lately.*

"No signs of a fight, should be safe."

They continued down the corridor which made several turns and went on for nearly 80 yards. A portion of the corridor had a number of small windows on the right side. All you could see though was some sand, rocks and the wall of another building.

The further down the corridor they went, the worse the maintenance became. Lights would flicker, there was more trash and puddles of water started to show up. On the left side were several locked doors with the sound of machinery working on the other side.

Elizabeth was starting to look a little bored and straightened her blouse before trying to do something with the red ribbon around her neck.

Finally they came to another Securis door and they stepped out into room about 80 foot square and 50 tall. The pipes headed off to the right and left to head down dark tunnels shut off by gates. On either side of the room were metal stairs that went to up to platform and another Securis Door along with a Pneumo. The floor was bare concrete and nearly a third of it was covered in water from a leak in the ceiling. One of the lights was out and another one flickered intermittently.

"See that they've really been keeping this place up."

*Looks like faulty materials. Some of this concrete is starting to crumble.*

They went up the stairs on the right side and through the Securis Door. On the other side was a small corridor that ran into a wide hallway. Ahead was a sealed door, a short way down the hall to the right a normal door and to the left the hall went up about 25 feet and turned to the right.

"Right or left?"

*How about right.*

_The smuggler is the friend of the Parasite. It is your duty to report the smuggler._

As they approached the door slowly opened with grinding noise. Rust starting at eating away at door's mechanisms. Inside was a small office with a desk facing the door, its long dead owner still slumped in a chair behind it. He'd been shot several times at close range judging from the powder burns on his shirt.

*Booker, is it a bad sign that finding dead bodies has stopped even being a surprise anymore?*

"Means we're getting to use to it again." he told her sadly. "Least not making many new ones."

*Well, if I start calling them "angels", please be worried.*

The office extended over to the left and there was a door and broken window at the far end. Another corpse in overalls was lying on the floor beneath the window, shot in the back. They took a moment to look through the room but didn't find anything except a sandwich consumed by mold, a couple screws and some glue. Neither corpse had anything on them.

He tried the door to the next room, but it was locked and needed a key to open it. They went to the broken window and looked at the hole. The hole was only about a foot wide and he had hoped to make it bigger, but looking at the heavily reinforced glass, it didn't seem to be nearly worth the effort.

Elizabeth was looking over the body on the floor and the length of club under it. *Shot in the back by someone close, a partner? I don't really see why though, there's not much here to steal here.*

"Don't think it was about not sharing a score. 'Bout not making one. What they wanted was behind that door and they didn't get it."

*And this guy's partner shot him because they failed? Shouldn't be that surprised I suppose, splicers are mentally unstable.*

"Some people don't need to be spliced to act that way." They looked into the room through the hole in the glass.

*Booker, on the post.* He didn't see anything. *No, the other post to the right by that counter, there's a key on a peg. This would be easier if I could at least point.*

"I see it. Now, how to get it?"

*Try the Air Grabber. The key's metal so it should be able to attract it.*

"Worth a try." He pointed the Grabber at the key and it slid off the peg and flew up towards them. He was just fast enough to grab the key before it hit the spinning arms of the Grabber.

*Huh! That worked better than I expected.* She said with a smile.

"That little trick should come in handy. Let's see what's in here." They walked over to the door and opened it. The area looked like some sort of workshop. There was a lot of welding equipment, pipes and metal about.

*I wonder what someone thought was important in here?*

"Guess we'll just have to find out." And they started searching. They found three brass tubes, a Pep Bar, a wallet that lacked any identification, but had 50 dollars in it. The last thing they found was an Audio Diary.

_Marta Sigurdsson: Shipment Moved_

_Date: October 3, 1958_

_Mr. Tarbox, Ryan's people are sniffing around. They didn't find the shipment, but I had to move it. It's in Bay 33, Number's 9056. Now that Fontaine's gone, they're really tightening the screws down looking for anyone they can tie to him. Stay Safe. _

"Humph. Killing and die'n for something that's not even here. Anything else you want to see?"

*No, we better get going.*

They continued down the hallway and followed it to the right and a down another twenty feet to a set of damaged doors. Only one of them would open. They slipped through the door and into another hallway much like the last. ON the right side of the corridor ahead were a doors that looked different than the normal "Rapture Style" he knew. It was a heavy water tight metal door like those found on a battleship. A small rusty sign on it said "Generator Room #2".

*Generator Room? All of Rapture's power comes from the volcanic tap at Hephaestus.*

"Don't hear any generators." He started to turn the wheel at the center of the door to open it.

*Does the door feel cold?*

"No, should it?" Wheel didn't want to turn much.

*No, it shouldn't. But if it did, that would mean there could be seawater on the other side of the door.*

He backed away from the door quickly. "Might have said something a little sooner." he told her, slightly miffed.

*Don't worry. If it's room temperature, its safe.* she responded with an amused tone.

If he still gambled, he would bet any amount of money that Anna had the same smile on her face as Elizabeth did right now. She did so love to do things like this from time to time, it was fun for her. Could be a bit irritating, but wouldn't have it any other way.

Moments later with a screech of metal on metal, the stubborn door opened.

–Elizabeth–

She knew they probably shouldn't be opening strange doors, but this area seemed all but abandoned and there might be supplies they could use. The room beyond was only half lit due to burned out lights, but it was large. Eighty feet wide, almost two hundred long and about fifty high. Water covered the entire floor, but she couldn't tell how deep it was. Protruding out of the water in along the center of the chamber where pieces of rusty metal. Around the room were a series of catwalks, stairs, doors and even a few ladders. Didn't look like anyone had been in here for years.

Booker carefully stepped out onto the catwalk after testing its strength and looked down. "Don't see any generators."

*I got it. This place used to supply power for Rapture while it was being built. After Hephaestus came on line, they took everything they wanted out of it and shut the door.*

Booker looked down either side of the catwalk they were standing on. On each side it extended about ten feet and stopped. Ten foot beyond the break the catwalk continued uninterrupted. He went to the left and examined the end.

"Looks like someone took a welding torch to this."

*Guess someone didn't want anyone to wander around in here.*

"Would've been easier to use a good lock." He looked down the catwalk and it ended at a door. A still working light over the door illuminated a sign that said "Control Room".

*Not much for us here.* Booker didn't turn to leave though. He stood for a moment and scratched his face while looking about. His eyes shifted to a cargo hook suspended from a set of tracks on the ceiling.

*Booker. You better not be thinking what I think you're thinking. There is no reason for us to go over there.*

"Actually, think there is a need to go over there. No one else does."

*I don't follow.* 'What is he thinking now?'

"Don't like leaving that Sky-Hook in at the Renaissance. And I certainly don't want to leave any valuables there either. Be nice to put 'em someplace safe and have some supplies stashed away."

*And what better place to hide them in a place no one goes. Unless they're a Spider Splicer they won't be able to get across the gap.*

Without a word, Booker used the Air Grabber to jump to the freight hook and then back down again to the catwalk just in front of the Control Room door. The door wasn't locked and opened to reveal a room filled with partially dismantled consoles, wires hanging from the ceiling and old chairs with cracked leather.

It was a little hard to move around as the floor was littered with discarded parts, tools, wiring and old papers. This was compounded by the only light in the room came through the windows that looked out over the room below.

*Next time we come down here we need to bring a flashlight.*

"Why didn't I…" Booker said to himself in an irritated tone. A moment later he activated Devil's Kiss to illuminate the room.

*Well, that's handy.*

"Huph. Fink actually marketed Devil's Kiss as a light source in Columbia."

*I guess he considered killing people to be a secondary use for it.*

"Still going to bring a flashlight. Won't have to worry about accidentally setting something on fire."

They spent about five minutes searching for anything that might be useful as well as a good hiding spot. Booker took her suggestion that they use an air vent near the ceiling for the location of their cache and they found a piece of rubber hose and some more brass tubing. They tried the door on the other side of the Control Room and found that a large section of the catwalk was missing on that side as well. With no convenient places for the Air Grabber to latch on to, it was a dead end.

"Probably not much down there anyway."

*We need to get going anyway.*

Minutes later they were back in the hallway moving towards their destination.

"There anyway to get around Rapture other than walking or owning a sphere?"

*There is a train line, The Atlantic Express, but it only serves a portion of the city. Most people walk or use the Rapture Metro.*

"Metro?"

*A series of automated Bathyspheres. They have stations all over Rapture. The station were we parked the Stingray is a stop for it. In some sections of the city there are tram cars, but those are only in the larger residential areas.*

"Big place. Most of Columbia was built on the ground then floated. Took more than ten years to get to the size we saw it. And they were still adding on to it until the Vox Revolt. Hard to see how they built this all underwater so fast."

*Most of Rapture was actually built on the surface then lowered down to the sea floor. Despite all the glitz, I don't think the construction quality is all that high and I have questions about the design as well.*

"Anything in particular?" Booker was interested, but also amused by something.

*For one these building are way too tall and thin. The taller a building is the more force the base of the building has to deal with as it sways back and forth. And moving water applies a lot force than the wind can. And all those windows. Really? Every seam is a potential point of failure. They would have been much better off with much lower and wider buildings.

"What about the glass in the windows? Didn't think they could make panes that big."

*Actually, I'm not sure what it is, but it isn't glass. It's something a lot stronger. But still, if it ever breaks, how are they going to fix it?*

"No idea."

They passed through another Securis door and were walking up another flight of steps.

*You don't really care about the buildings, do you.*

"Actually, I do. Not for the reason you do though." Oh, she could HEAR the smile on his face. What he said next was sober though.

"Occurred to me while on the trip up from Fontainr's that it looked a bit familiar. New York."

*New York City? But, oh you're talking about when Columbia attacked in 1984. Hmm. It does look like it in some ways.*

"And there's the reason for the tall buildings. Ryan was probably trying to make his own "better" version."

*An interesting observation.*

"Comstock did much the same. Columbia was an idealized version of New York City and Chicago in some ways. A big reason for your Tower on Monument Island was to "one up" the Statue of Liberty. It was to be the first thing new citizens of Columbia would see when they got to the city. Just as immigrants coming into the Harbor would see the Statue of Liberty."

*A waste of resources.*

"But good propaganda."

*Even the Stature of Liberty?*

"Actually, that was a gift from France. Designed and built by the same Eifel who did the Tower in Paris."

They went up another flight of stairs and past a number of empty rooms.

*And where did you learn all that?*

"Thought I better do some research before Anna started asking a couple hundred questions about it." She wondered how often he had to look up something to answer Anna's questions. Probably a lot.

They came to another Securis door. *This is taking a lot longer that I thought it would. Did we miss a turn someplace?*

"Don't think so. Want to go back?"

*Let's see if there is anything on the other side of this door first.*

Booker pulled the lever and the door opened with a small protest due to lack of use. It opened out into an ally only as wide as the door and about twenty feet long. The ceiling was at least 40 feet overhead and they could hear the signs of life.

"'Bout time."

_The Big Daddies have no interest in you. Treat them as they do you; DO NOT interfere with their work, especially if they are with a Little Sister._

They walked out of the alley and into Fortune Avenue. What they saw didn't impress her. The street was half as wide as the Way and had little ornamentation. The large concrete blocks that made up the walls were not even painted in most places. A single window looked down the alley from the wall on the other side of the so called avenue.

To the left Fortune Avenue made a sharp turn to the right and then out of sight. To the right it went down about 50 feet and opened into an much larger area. It was dirty, trash lay about and water from the ceiling slowly dripped into puddles of filthy water. On an upper level a rude foot bridge made of scrap metal and old wood boards crossed over the avenue.

"Fortune Avenue seems to be a perfect name for this place."

*Not as bad as Shanty Town, but it's getting there.*

They went to the right and were soon standing in a large open space that was three stories tall and half the size of a city block. Unlike Prosperity Way which was packed with businesses and places to live, only a few locations had anything in them. Most of the place was just walls with exposed support beams, though someone had painted a mural showing trees rolling hills and a bright yellow sun. But the mural was old. The paint was peeling, the sun was riddled with bullet holes and graffiti covered the lower half of it. Most of the graffiti supported Atlas or called for the death of Andrew Ryan.

To the right was a fountain with several benches around it, but it wasn't running and the pool was empty of water. There were about twenty people in this plaza, half of them apparently going about their business. The other half were around the fountain and looked decidedly unfriendly. They all were armed, but most had clubs and only a few had pistols. Many wore some form of make shift armor, usually sports gear. One even wore a steel plate to protect his torso.

All of them had severe ADAM scars.

"Best to avoid that gang." Booker said quietly and headed at an oblique angle away from them. Several of the gang members watched them, but didn't move. A splicer sitting next to the one with metal breastplate made some motions with his hands as he talked to the men and women around him.

"Who do you think the leader is?" The tone of his voice said that he already knew the answer.

*The one sitting down next to the man with metal armor. He made some odd motions with his hands that I don't understand.*

"It's a kind of simple sign language. He's giving orders."

*Who is he giving them to? And what are the orders?*

"Guessing the orders are 'bout us. Who they are for, probably someone we can't see. They don't seem to be doing anything at the moment. Hope it's a good sign."

There were a number of businesses in the plaza. A sign for "Dr. Alfred, M.D." was behind "Sinclair Spirits" close on their left. Across the plaza ahead of them was "Sea's Best Foods" and "Carmichael's Used Goods". On the left a rickety stairway led up to a place called "The Hit Tavern". In the far left corner were a Little Sister Vent and a Gene Bank.

There were three other entrances to the plaza. One was to the right of the mural, but it had been boarded up. One was ahead of them next to the Sea's Best and the last between the Gene Bank and The Hit Tavern.

Booker headed for the Gene Bank, but slowed down part of the way over. He kept looking at the Little Sister Vent. He had thought of something, but she couldn't tell what.

"Elizabeth, where does ADAM come from?" He sounded grim.

That was a strange question. *It's produced by the Little Sisters. You know that.*

"And you're a Little Sister."

*Yes.* She really didn't need a reminder of the situation she and Anna were in. He didn't say anything more until he got near to the Little Sister Vent and stopped in front of it.

"Guilty, just like they are." he said in an ashamed voice.

*Guilty? Guilty of what?*

"Using the Little Sisters. ADAM."

*You mean the Plasmids? You didn't have a choice.* Great, now I'm supporting his ADAM use.

"Doesn't make a difference."

*But…*

"But nothing." He said in a harsh voice, but the tone was directed at himself, not her. "Didn't you ever think that I could be using ADAM that came from Anna?" His voice nearly broke when he said her name.

That stopped her. She *hadn't* considered it.

"Not going to use her like that. Or the other Little Sisters. No more."

Booker was right.

But he was also wrong.

He wasn't like the other splicers. If Booker hadn't been spliced he could never destroyed the Lutece Device and saved thousands of little girls from becoming Little Sisters. He will never be able to save Anna without using Plasmids. And she feared the only way to keep his from getting sever ADAM sickness was his continued use of ADAM. She needed time to think.

Booker waited a short time and when she didn't say anything he told her in an apologetic tone. "We need to get going."

*Yeah, sure. Guess while we're here, we might as well see what's up that tunnel.*

"Sounds good." He seemed a little relieved. Maybe he thought the subject was closed? For now it was, but it wouldn't stay that way.

They walked up the tunnel and passed several people along the way. They took one look at Booker and steered clear of him. They all had a look of desperate hatred in their eyes. Perfect victims for Atlas's con. The tunnel took a turn to the right and ended in a large open area with a battered three story building that had a sign that said "Bingham Apartments" on it. Off to the left side of the door was a Circus of Values machine.

This building and some of the other ones on Fortune Avenue puzzled her. Unlike other locations in Rapture, these were separate buildings built inside an open space. Most places in Rapture, you couldn't tell where a major support structure ended and a business or residence started. It was like these buildings down here were added down here as an afterthought.

And whoever had added them hadn't done a very good job. The paint on the apartment building was peeled, windows cracked and stucco walls had pieces falling out.

*Can't these people do basic repairs?*

"Takes money to do that. These people don't look to have much. Bet Atlas is real popular down here."

*I'm sure he is.*

Booker started walking towards the Values machine. "Going to try a little experiment."

*Oh? What kind of experiment?*

He looked to make sure no one was around. "Going to see if I can Bypass just by touching it." Guess it was a good sign that Booker wasn't going to stop using the Plasmids he already had.

He stood in front of the Circus of Values machine, activated the Security Bypass Plasmid and reached out to touch it as if he were using the machine. The blue flame on his hand spread to the Values machine without any problem.

"Wonder why we can see that it's bypassed, but other people can't. You Can see the…"

*Yes, I can see that it's covered in blue fire. You being able to see that it's bypassed is probably a function of the Plasmid. You don't want to let other people know something is wrong, but you also need to know what's been bypassed and what hasn't.*

"Hum, so the fire is kind of an illusion." He seemed wistful for a moment.

*What?*

"Just remembering a young lady telling me about "what we see and what is" being two different things."

That seemed so long ago. *You planning on buying anything?*

"No, let's get to that used goods store. Should be something there for us."

The only person they encountered on the way back the plaza was a drunk, who staggered a little too close for comfort before moving off.

*Be glad you aren't here. You would have gotten drunk just from his breath.*

*Sad being drunk at this time of day.*

*Likely still drunk from last night. Did the same more than once.* he added sadly.

_Ladies, don't let a few wrinkles or crow's feet get between you and the man of your dreams. Whatever the flaw, Dr. Steinman has a solution. Come see him at Aesthetic Ideals in the Medical Pavilion. Dr. Steinman will make a new woman out of you. Guaranteed._

As they got close to Carmichael's, she did her best impression of a particularly snooty saleswoman she had the misfortune to encounter. *And on your right is Carmichael's Used Goods, the place to go for the most Haut Couture in the city of Rapture.*

*Someone you don't like I take it.*

*No, a lot of these people are arrogant elitist snobs. To them, if you're not rich, you're nothing.*

Booker sighed. *People like that all over the world.*

*I guess, but Rapture must have the highest density of them on the planet.*

They entered the store and looked around. Racks of clothes, books, toys, nick knacks, dishes, shoes, simple tools, records, a few paintings, old magazines, lamps and all sorts of odds and ends. They headed first to the men's cloths where Booker picked out several sets of work clothes along with an orphaned white dress shirt. Then he headed to the shoes section.

*Not going to try anything on?*

There were a number of other people in the store so Booker continued to speak silently. *No. Clothes that fit perfectly would be out of place.*

*Planning on pretending to be a workman again?*

*Should work as well down here as it did on the, uh, surface? That the term they use?*

*Surface or topside will do.*

It took a few minutes to find a good pair of shoes that fit well and then Booker took a moment to look over the selection of boy's clothes.

*And why are we looking at these?*

*Likely that someone I know will be wanting to get out of her Little Sister dress the moment that she gets even halfway back to being herself. Best to know where to get something she'll want to wear. And looking like a boy will help keep her safe.*

*I do NOT look like a BOY!* Really!

He looked to the side a moment and chuckled. *No, you certainly don't. But some people will just see the clothes and not look any closer to see Anna.*

*Humph!* She wished she had a book to throw at him. A big heavy one.

In total, they spent nearly a half hour inside the store. Booker chose simple tin plates and cups for dishes explaining that until they found someplace relatively safe, they needed to be able to move on short notice. He also picked up a few pots, pans, a duffle bag that looked waterproofed and a couple sets of mismatched flatware.

When he went to pay the cashier, she gave him a long hard look not knowing what to make of him. Booker's suit was standing out more than she thought it would. Not that his old clothes would have been much better. Booker packed everything into the duffle bag and threw it over his shoulder.

*So what are we going to do next?* she asked as they walked to the door.

*Back to Prosperity Way and then get the cache set up. Should be about time for lunch by then and Anna's nap time.*

*Sounds good to me.*

Once they were out the door they saw that the gang of splicers had moved. They now stood between Booker and the exit back to the Way. When they saw Booker they started to walk towards him with their weapons out. A quick glance to the right showed three more of the splicers moving in from the direction of the Gene Bank. They were being boxed in.

*On second thought, I think we need to change our plans.*

End Chapter 24


	25. Chapter 25

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 25

-Elizabeth-

There were nine splicers ahead of them and three more on their right. Four had pistols and the rest armed with clubs. Several of them dragged their clubs on the ground to create spark and one beat the ground in anticipation. Many wore maniacal grins. Several called out to him.

"We just want to talk! It's important!" "I got something for you!" "Just want to be your friend!" "Com'er sweet cheeks."

Did one of the men just call Booker "sweet cheeks"?

Booker was badly outnumbered and would soon be trapped.

Or that is what the splicers probably thought. Elizabeth was quite sure that Booker had already figured out how to kill every one of these splicers. Figuring out a way to *not* kill all of them was going to be much more difficult.

She kept quite while Booker thought and tried to figure out what he was going to do. His choice totally surprised her.

He turned and ran.

Booker turned right and ran down the front of Sea's Best Foods towards the three splicers coming from near the Gene Bank. Surprised, they hesitated a moment, then the one with a pistol went to start shooting.

He never got the chance as the Bucking Bronco violently lifted him and woman besides him into the air.

The larger gang of splicers behind them were screaming and running after Booker. Several shots rang out, but only one hit Booker and was absorbed by his Shield. The one splicer ahead of them unaffected by the Bronco tried to block Booker's path, but Booker jumped to the side. The splicer did manage to land a hit with his club which took Booker's Shield down low, but didn't break it.

The splicer paid for it though as Booker's Shock Treatment Gear activated and a powerful electrical jolt hit him in return. Then Booker was past the man and in the clear. She knew what he was doing now. He was heading for the exit tunnel on the other side of the food store. She hoped it wasn't a dead end.

The tunnel ran for about 70 feet and they passed a Securis door on the left, but the control spat out spark and they didn't have time to try to open it. They could hear the splicer's behind them. She thought she heard one of them say "We got 'em!"

They came out the tunnel and onto a foot bridge that crossed a large trench like room.

And bridge only went halfway across.

"Damn it!" Booker cursed as he skidded to a stop just short of the end. It was at least a forty foot drop to the water covered floor below. She thought there was some kind of machinery down there. Then they spotted a cargo hook jutting from the wall to the left and down. Booker got out the Air Grabber and a moment later they were hanging from the hook. He dismounted quickly landing in the shallow water behind one of the larger pieces of machinery.

He quickly ducked down out of sight. Moments later they could hear the pounding footsteps of the splicers as they ran out onto the foot bridge.

"Where is he?!" "Come out you fascist!" "Gonna find you!" "Death to Ryan!" Damn, he fell down!"

For several moments the splicers milled around on the bridge looking for Booker in the gloom. Then they started turning on each other with shouts, accusations and demands that someone go down find Booker. One voice rose above the rest.

"Shut! Up!" It was a deep harsh voice.

One man didn't. "We gotta find him! He's going to..."

There was a crunching sound and a scream of pain. The deep harsh voice spoke again.

"I said, Shut Up. That little fish isn't getting back to Ryan now, fall woulda broken his legs. Him being down here means that Ryan might be send'n more down. We need to be ready."

The splicers noisily made their way off the footbridge and back down the tunnel.

*Booker, I don't think I've ever seem you run from anything. I'm proud of you.*

*Just trying to get through a day in this damn city without killing anyone.* he said grumpily.

*Now we have to find another way out of here and back to Prosperity Way.*

*Need to make sure they didn't leave someone behind first.*

Booker slowly moved to where he could look around the corner of the machinery they were behind. The Cat's Feet Gear helping him move in near total silence, even in the water. Fortunately, the footbridge above was empty. Booker stood up and looked around in the gloom.

The piece of equipment they had taken cover behind was a pump of some kind. But it heavily rusted. There was something that looked like a bathysphere, but it looked like construction equipment had been attached to it. Further down was generator half buried in broken sections of pipes. On either side of the room were the remains of narrow gage train tracks.

Booker looked up. There were several cargo hooks on the walls, but none of them were high enough that Booker could use them to regain the foot bridge. Tracks on the ceiling that suggested an overhead crane had been here at one time. He turned around they saw more abandoned and rusted equipment, spheres, parts of diving suites, battered handcarts, pieces of metal and pipe.

"Place is a junkyard."

*Given the amount of rust and the style of the spheres and diving suits, I would say that this equipment was used to help build Rapture.*

Booker walked up to the closest construction sphere and ignited Devil's Kiss to provide more light. A large hole had been punched in the side by something and some of the parts had been stripped off.

"Looks like it was broken before came here. Seen this in train yards. Something breaks and they can't or don't want to fix it, they shove it off to the side for later.

*I suppose latter never came.*

As they got closer to the damaged sphere something didn't look right to her. She was about to ask him to take a closer look at it when his eyes fixed on it. He walked over to the sphere and opened the door. Inside were scrapes of paper, a worn out blanket and an Audio Diary. The man's voice was old and weathered.

_Peter Tarbox: Rust Alley_

_October13, 1958_

_Rapture Security is hunting me now. All because I was fool enough to deal with Fontaine to get something from the surface. Don't think anyone remembers this place. Least I hope they don't. Callin' it Rust Alley. Nothing down here but rusted machines. And rusted dreams._

*Wonder if this Tarbox is still down here?*

"Could be. If he is, hope he knows a way out."

They looked around a few moments, but found nothing useful. All the lights down here had burned out long ago and it was difficult to see very far even with the Devil's Kiss. As the continued down the alley Booker asked what a "fascist" was.

*Means dictator, but with some worse connotations.*

"Worse?"

*Something from World War II. I read that these fascist groups killed millions of people.*

"Comstock saw some of that. Two World Wars." He shook his head.

*The first one started in 1914. All the major nations in Europe were involved. The fighting spread from Europe all over the world. The United States even got involved at the end. I saw it called Trench Warfare and it was bloody.*

*The Second World War was worse. Great Britain, France, Russia and the United States against Germany, Italy and Japan. Whole cities destroyed and in Germany they tried to kill all those they deemed "inferiors" in what they call the Holocaust. Tens of millions died. The descriptions of it were horrible. Photographs even worse. At the end the United States used something called an atomic bomb to destroy two cities in Japan. Now Russia and the America are in a Cold War with hundreds of these atomic bombs pointed at each other. Enough power to destroy the world.*

"Bet Ryan used the threat of those atomic bombs to get people to come down to Rapture."

*That's how Rapture is supposed to "save humanity". When civilization on the surface destroys itself with atomic bombs, Rapture will pick up the pieces with a "New Order" without war.*

"The "no war" part seems to be working well. Wonder what happens when the world doesn't blow itself up?"

*Rapture's not going to be around that long fortunately.* *What makes you think that the world isn't going to blow itself up?*

"Comstock never saw a reality where the world destroyed itself before Columbia did. Least in places where there was a Columbia."

*Nice to know since this is home now.* At least he and Anna won't have to worry so much about *that* when they got out of there.

They were nearing the far end of the room. In addition to rusted machinery there was unused construction material, oversized gears, metal doors, hatches, spools of cable metal, beams and even the remains of a small submarine.

Booker lifted his hand up higher to get a better look at the wall. But it wasn't wall, but a massive door.

*Huh. An airlock. They must have used this place to store supplies when they were building the city.*

They walked around the submarine and found a smaller watertight door. *Booker could you look back at the bridge?* She had an odd feeling again.

He obliged and looked back the way they came. "Expect to see something?"

*I don't¼ never mind. Sorry.*

"No problem. Always a good..."

Then with a familiar sound, a Tear opened up a few feet in front to them. Booker reflexively jumped back and extinguished the Devil's Kiss as loud music burst from the Tear. A man was singing.

_I'm sorry it went down like this,_

_And someone had to lose,_

_It's the nature of the business,_

_It's the smuggler's blues._

_Smuggler's B__l__u__es_...

(1)

And the Tear closed.

"That was different." Booker said.

*I rather liked it.* Then his eyes locked on the bridge. There was someone walking out on it with something in his hand. A flashlight.

Booker crouched down and moved behind the submarine. Several moments later the flashlight beam played over the spot they had been standing. The beam was weak because of the distance, but it still might have been enough for the person on the bridge to see them.

The light played around the area for a minute then vanished. Booker waited another several minutes before carefully looking around the rusted submarine hull to the bridge. It was empty again.

*Seems someone doesn't want to let you get away Booker.*

"Probably the one that wouldn't shut up before. Guess he didn't like being hit with the Bronco."

*My heart bleeds for him.* she said sarcastically.

They walked to the watertight door and pulled it open. Inside was a short corridor that led to a flight of stairs going down and an office door on the right. Most of the lights in here worked so Booker didn't reignite the Devil's Kiss.

"Someone's been here recently."

*If someone has been down here and there should be an exit.*

*Elizabeth, when Lutece.. well spy on a reality, they can hear as well as see, right?*

*I could, and I don't think it was any different for them given how they act. Why do you want to know?*

*Not sure. Don't trust 'em and rather not have them know you're Anna.*

*They did help me come back to Rapture and warn me that I would die.*

*Just something my gut is telling me they shouldn't know. Not sure why. I may say a few things that are wrong just to throw them off a little.*

*A few things?* She thought Booker might be acting a little paranoid, but given this was Rapture, being a little paranoid was probably a good thing.

He started walking towards the door. *Saying you are just memories or an ADAM Ghost. Just want you to know ahead of time.*

*Not much I can do about it, is there?*

They walked into the office.

*Don't want you starting to think you actually are ADAM memories or whatever again.* He sounded a little worried.

*I promise I won't Booker.* she assured him. 'I am not going to let go of you again Booker. Not for anything.'

-Booker-

Glad that was out of the way. Last thing he wanted her to do was put a doubt in her mind about being Anna. He wished he knew what was telling him not to let anyone know that Elizabeth was Anna. As the looked around the room the first thing that they spotted was an Audio Diary.

_Peter Tarbox: The Others_

_November 2, 1958_

_I thought I was alone here, I'm not. I saw some men came from the lower tunnels yesterday and go to the other side. I think they went up to Fortune Avenue. One of them I recognized, he worked for Fontaine. I don't know where these men came from. I searched the tunnels when I arrived here and there is no way in from below. I need to be careful, I think they would kill me if they knew I was here. _

*Seems to be traffic down here than we expected.* She made a slightly puzzled face.

"Know there's an exit now."

*Let's see what else is here and try to find these lower tunnels.*

"Agreed."

The office didn't have much in it. Mostly just old paper work though they did find some kerosene. He thought a map would have been better to find.

"Why would they have kerosene down here?" he wondered as he scratched his face.

*I would expect they used it for heat. It's cold down here at the bottom of the ocean, nearly freezing.*

"Let's find these tunnels."

They left the office and walked down the stairs. He had Cat's Feet Gear active so he made no noise. At the foot of the stair was a door. Going through it was like stepping into another world. It was a tunnel made of grey rock.

*This is a natural cavern. I wonder how many there are under Rapture?*

"Think there's more of these?"

*Sure, if there's one, there are likely more about. Caves tend to occur in groups.*

"Might prove useful if we could find more of these."

*Any particular reason?*

"Good places to hide. Not this one since it's known. But maybe other one?" he shrugged.

He looked around. The floor of the cave had large pieces of metal laying it to give better footing. Overhead power lines hung from lights mounted on the walls. They slowly headed further into the cave and encountered several rooms. They looked mostly natural but here and there someone had done some work to expand them or level off the floor.

The contents of the rooms were not special or useful. Empty crates, old furniture such as tables and chairs, a broken record player, a few old newspapers from the surface, a typewriter and a bottle of twenty five year old scotch. He took the scotch.

*You're not planning on drinking that?* She seemed puzzled and raised a pencil thin eyebrow at him.

"Course not. Might make for a good bribe to someone though."

*Some people do like their drink.* she admitted.

A couple of the rooms had lockers in them, most had old clothes in them but one of them had a full diving suit. They got to the last room which had lockers on three of the walls, two benches and several push carts in it.

*Can you look up at the roof a moment? As I thought, someone did a lot more work in here than the other chambers. I don't think this cave ends here.*

"Don't think it does either." he said as he looked at the push carts.

*And when did you become a geologist?* she asked with excessive politeness.

"Didn't. Part of the being a detective is noticing things that are out of place." he gestured to the hand carts. Those don't belong here and they're fairly new."

*Everything else down here is old.*

"So where is the most likely place for the cave to continue?"

*The far wall, about in the center, behind the lockers. Wouldn't be surprised if this room was constructed this way with the express purpose of hiding the rest of the cave.*

"Wouldn't doubt it." He walked up to the lockers and looked around for a short time before he found a small lever which he pulled. With a metallic "thunk" a section of the lockers swung open on unseen hinges to reveal an unlit passage way going downward at an angle.

*That's why they use the carts. Be hard to carry boxes up that.*

He started to slowly walk down the passage, relying on light from the room they just left to guide him.

*Rather dark down here.*

*Not going to use the Devil's Kiss unless I have to. The light can give us away.* he told her.

They went a short distance and the tunnel headed off the left. As they went around the bend they could see there was light ahead of them. He crouched down with his autopistol ready, ears straining to pick up activity. All he heard was dripping water and he could smell salt water.

And there was an echo?

They edged around the bend and discovered a huge chamber at least fifty yards across, thirty high and mostly filled with water. Moving forward revealed a dock, four stacks of crates and even a small building. He carefully looked around to see if anyone else was here, but it was empty.

*Doesn't look like anyone's home.*

"Got no problem with that."

He stood up, holstered his pistol and started walking to the docks. As he got closer he could see that the crates where fairly new and they all had a black hand print on them.

*This must be one of the Fontaine's smuggling hideouts. I saw that same symbol of a black hand the crates Atlas had in Fontaine's Department Store.*

"Let's take a look."

The first stack of crates contained nothing but Arcadia Merlot, Old Tom Whiskey and Chechnya Vodka. The second pile of crates was filled with much the same thing.

*Seems Fontaine was bringing in alcohol from the surface, though the merlot is made in Rapture, it's probably stolen.*

He took a closer look at the wood the crates were made of and ran his finger along the top of one of the crates. "Think these have been here little awhile. Water's starting to get at the wood."

*We know that someone has been here fairly recently.*

The next stack of crates was mostly alcohol, but one on the bottom contained canned beef. "Beef? Should take some of this."

*Not a good idea. Rapture doesn't have cattle. The only way to get beef¼*

"is to smuggle it in. If someone catches me with it, they're going to start asking a lot of questions. You ever get tired of fish?"

*I was starting to.*

"Might be worth it to hide these someplace else down here if we have the time. Having some extra food may come in handy."

*Let's see what's in the last stack.*

Before he even got to the last stack of crates he suspected he knew what would be in them. Unlike the other crates, many of these didn't have a black hand on them. Two of the crates had the name of a well know US weapons manufacturer on them. Another had a British weapon producer. He suspected the names on the other crates he didn't recognize were new companies. Three of them were in Russian.

*Huh. Looks like Fontaine was shipping in weapons from the surface. I don't understand why though. He could have had them made here.*

"My guess would be cost. Cheaper to buy them on the surface and smuggle them in then make then here."

*Or maybe something that can't be easily made in Rapture.*

The first couple of crates contained Tommy Guns, a dozen in total. The model was a little different than the ones made in Rapture and they looked like they had seen a lot of use. From one of the wars? Several of the other crates contained several dozen .38 pistols of the model people in Rapture seemed to favor.

The crates with the Russian markings were last. The first crate contained three hollow metal tubes with handles and sights on them. The other two boxes each contained dozen large warheads with a metal rod attached at the base. Took just a moment to put it together in his head.

"A Rocket Launcher."(2)

*Yeah. And warhead that size of these? You could probably kill a Big Daddy with just one hit.*

'Kill the Big Daddy and the Little Sister was yours for the taking.'

"Doesn't sound like Atlas should get his hand on these."

*No, but how should we destroy them?*

He smiled. "How about some fireworks?"

*Are you serious?* She seemed both reluctant and intrigued by the prospect.

"Be nice to set off some explosions that save a life for once."

*Let's finish looking around before we go blowing things up.* she told him with a half-smile on her face.

He chuckled slightly and walked towards the small building. Inside were a couple of wood tables, some chairs, a large trunk and a small kerosene heater with some fuel. One of the tables had some dishes with spoiled food on them. The other table had papers, schedules and an Audio Diary.

_Atlas: Weapons from the Surface_

_January 18, 1959_

_Ryan got those damn Big Daddies guard'n the Little Sisters and the ADAM. Nothing in Rapture can take 'em down other than throwin' a whole lot of people at em. I do that and I won't have anyone left to fight with. Durin' the war they had something called a Bazooka. Use'd 'em destroyed tanks. I _need_ something like that. Wish I could get my hand on that slant eyed bastard for makin' them frankenstein monsters. _

"Humph, so that's what Atlas sound like."

*Your Irish accent is better than his is. What I don't understand is why those weapons are still down here.*

"Probably hasn't been able to move them safely. Just hope this is the only shipment of these he managed to get to Rapture."

He went over to the shack and looked inside. It was a treasure trove. Twenty rounds of .45 anti-personnel ammo, 208 dollars, half a dozen Heavy Revolver Shell Casing and best of all, five Rapture Identification Cards along with two blank ID cards.

*About time we found some.*

He looked the ID's over carefully. Different names, different pictures, but all for the same man. "Need to see these in better light, but these don't look that hard to copy. Just a picture, some typing and stamp. Didn't even put part of the stamp on the picture. Sloppy. These two blank cards are already stamped."

*Now you're done critiquing, let's get rid of the rocket launchers.*

"Worried that someone may come down here or just want to blow up something?"

*Well, what do you think?* she asked in a challenging tone.

"Can't let Atlas find these." He smiled about that. Had the feeling she wanted to blow something up almost as much as she wanted to keep them from Atlas.

Moments later he picked up one of the launchers and loaded it. Really was quite easy to figure out. He aimed at the dock and pulled the trigger. A canon went off in his head.

He dropped the launcher and grabbed his ears. So LOUD!

*Booker, are you ok?* It was hard to hear her over the ringing in her ears.

"Yeah, fine." His eyes were starting to water. That wasn't pleasant.

*I don't think those are supposed to be fired indoors.*

"You think?" The ringing in his ears was fading. Hoped he hadn't damaged them. He sat on a convenient boulder for a short time as his ears recovered. Now they knew why Atlas wasn't using them. Trying to fire one off these things in any kind of closed in space would kill whoever fired it.

*We can't shoot any more of these off. So how are we going to destroy them?*

"Fire. Move everything into the shack, pour some of the vodka and kerosene around, then light it."

*And run.*

"And run. Safer to use the Devil's Kiss to start it burning." He got up and walked over the dock. An eight foot section was missing out of the middle of it. He had aimed closer to the shore. Guess they weren't all that accurate. They spent the next several minutes moving all the crates, except the one with the canned meat, into the shack. Rather than trust the fire to destroy the launchers, he smashed them against a boulder.

After moving the canned meat safely up to the locker room. He poured some of the vodka around then broke open the heater and poured its contents around and quickly left. He got as far away as he could from the shack and then threw a Devil's Kiss bomb into it.

The kerosene caught and soon the shack was engulfed in flames.

*Makes for a nice fire.* she told him with ill-disguised cheerfulness.

"Rather not be around for when things start going off."

They were just about out of the cave when the first explosion happened. As they closed the door, the report of another detonation reached them.

*Hope no one else hears that.* she worried as he picked up the case of canned meat.

"Don't think anyone will. Time to find a way out of here. Got important things to do."

End Chapter 25

(1) Smuggler's Blues By Glen Fry

(2) These weapons are RPG-2's. The forerunner to the famous RPG-7 still in wide use today.


	26. Chapter 26

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 26

-Booker-

He carried the case of canned beef part way up the tunnel then put it down to scout ahead. Be bad if someone stumbled on him carrying it. The path ahead was clear though.

"So any ideas on where to hid this?" he asked as they walked back.

*I would think the best place would be in all that junk. Who would bother to look?*

"Just what I was thinking."

Several minutes late the crate was hidden inside the remains of the small submarine under a large piece of rusty metal. Next was the other water tight door.

Like the one across from it, the door opened easily. Beyond it was a corridor that went about thirty feet straight ahead and made a turn to the right. About half way down were three steps leading up and a doorway. Most of the lights in this area still worked, so he wouldn't need to use the Devil's Kiss.

They tried the door and found it opened up on room filled with shelves. The shelves were mostly empty, but they did find a pair of working batteries. In one corner of the room they found several empty cans of food, some distilled water and an Audio Diary.

_Peter Tarbox: Why I am here _

_Date November 22, 1958_

_I was not a good man on the surface. Lived beyond my means and embezzled money from my bank to pay for it. I cheated on my wife for years and abandoned her to come down here to hide. In the end though, hiding did not help. This city has no soul, but I do. A torn and battered thing, but it is mine still. I tried to bring Him here. To try and save a few, do some good in the time I have left. But my feeble attempt to do so has undone me. _

_This city and those that dwell here are damned. _

*I guess we both know how he feels.*

"Yeah. Any idea who he was trying to bring down here?"

*Your guess would be as good as mine.*

The left the former stockroom and headed down the corridor. A short distance after the turn there was a stairway heading down a passageway that led to the left and a room ahead of them. His face was itching again, but he resisted the temptation to scratch.

"Any preference?"

*Let's try the room ahead, then the corridor.*

This room looked like equipment storage for underwater construction. Handheld welding equipment, power saws, drilling equipment, oversized rivet guns and the like. Nothing useful to them though.

Next was the corridor. It led to a large room with several oversized lockers and pieces of armored diving suits suspended from the ceiling. Unlike the other suits they found, these had a strong resemblance to the Big Daddies they had seen.

*The suits they used were evolving.* She sounded more than a little intrigued.

"Evolving?"

*Yes, the diving suits we saw earlier are like those you would find anywhere in the world. These are more advanced. Built to withstand greater depths and protect the man inside from injury. Can you take a closer look at the one on the right?*

He took a closer look with Elizabeth looking over his shoulder. *As I expected. These suits aren't as old as the other ones we found. These may have been down here only a few years.*

"Think they still might work?"

*I suppose they might be safe to use. You have an idea?*

"If I can't find a way out of there..."

*Let's hope it never comes to that.*

He looked at the other end of the room . There was a large heavy door at least eight feet wide with "Bay 33" stenciled above it. This door looked a little more like the other doors in Rapture. Probably newer construction. Red and Green lights were just below the Bay number and the green one was lit.

*Booker, remember that Audio Diary we found earlier that talked about a smuggled shipment?*

"Good catch."

*You would have remembered, eventually.* He didn't have to look at her to tell that she had an amused smirk on her face.

He humphed good naturedly and went over the six oversized lockers. They all had combination locks on them, but only one was locked.

As he entered the combination in Elizabeth asked *Any guesses on what's in here?*

"Not a one." he told her and opened up the locker and opened up the crate inside. Both of them were surprised.

Bibles.

"So that's what Tarbox meant when he said he was going to bring "Him" down here. Talking about God."

*He was going to try and preach religion in Rapture. I don't think it would have ended well for him.*

"Probably not. Let's see what's on the other side of that." he motioned towards the large door. Next to the door as a large heavy handle and with labels on it. "Fill" "and "Drain" with it being set to "Drain" at the moment. Beside it was a pair of oversized buttons marked "Open" and "Close". He hit the "Open" button and the heavy door slid into the floor.

Two feeble lights flickered on to reveal a dead body. He was older and had been dead about for a while, shot several times at close range. Around him looked to be his personal possessions, a blanket, pillow some cans of food and a few books.

"Think we found Tarbox."

*I guess he wasn't carful enough.*

He went back to the locker, got a bible from the crate and put it with Tarbox's remains. "Deserves that much."

*Nothing more for us here.*

He closed the door and headed to the stairway leading down. As he got to the bottom the floor was covered with nearly a foot of water. The lighting was dim, but he could see fairly well. The room was empty, but a doorway led to another room. Booker sloshed to the other room to find it contained two large pumps, a rotting wood desk and another stairway going up. On the desk was an Audio Diary.

_Pablo Navarro: Closing Down_

_Date: June 13, 1954_

_McDonagh told us to close this old section down and I don't blame him. This place has been filling up with junk for years. But if you look in the right place, you can find something you can sell to the right people. Nobody will ever be the wiser. Pull on the Great Chain the right way and you can make out pretty good. _

"Guess that explains why we can't find much useful down here. What's this "Great Chain"?"

*It's Ryan's economic belief system. He sees people as links in a "Great Chain of Industry" that is both pulled by the people and pulls them. But you can only move the chain in the "right" direction if you pull in your own self interest.*

"How did this Great Chain get from self-interest to kidnaping children?"

*Because it's based ONLY on self-interest. They think empathy is a weakness and winning is the only thing.*

"I get it. I'm only to care about me and nobody else. Ryan thinks I shouldn't care about Anna." he said angrily. In this city, the crimes he committed against Anna, Elizabeth, would have been nothing. Maybe even encouraged.

Damn this city.

He didn't say anything more as they started walking up the stairs. The shameful memories of the man he had been rolling around in his head with his hatred of this place. At the top of the stairs was a corridor that went to the left. There was a single large room here filled with old tables and chairs. Not worth exploring.

At the end of the corridor there was another flight of stairs that led up. He did a quick figuring of their position.

"Those stairs should go to the Securis door we ran past."

*You mean the broken one?*

"Let's hope it's not broken on this side."

*Not bad Booker. Figuring out our location I mean.*

"Oh, you would have realized it." "Eventually."

*Touché.* she said with a wry smile.

A minute later they stood in front of the Securis Door that would allow them to get back to Fortune Avenue. Sparks shot from the lever that controlled the door.

"Don't suppose you know a way to fix one of these."

*See if you can pry the cover off. That exposes the gear system and you can use to Air Grabber to activate the door.*

"That works?"

*I did it several times in Fontaines.*

'Nothing else to try.' He examined the cover for a short time and didn't see any way to cleanly pry it off. "Have to do it the hard way." he muttered.

He hit the cover once with the Grabber, but it didn't dent it nearly enough. He hit it a second time and the Electric Touch activated send sparks flying. With a familiar rumble the door opened. Booker bolted through it before it had a chance to close again.

"Did Not expect that to happen." He said in a slightly bewildered tone.

*Me either. Guess we don't have to worry about getting through broken doors anymore.*

He smelled something. Smoke. He drew the autopistol on reflex. There was the also another smell. One he knew much too well. The smell of burnt flesh.

*Booker? What's happening?*

"Something bad." was all he could tell her.

-Elizabeth-

'Something bad?'

That was all that he must know. He faced down the tunnel towards the plaza with his autopistol out. There was something lying in the plaza and she was positive it had not been there before. Booker's eyes focused on it for a moment and she expected it was a dead body.

Booker stayed along the right wall as they carefully moved down the corridor. The farther they went the more they could see of the plaza. Sea's Best Foods was on fire. The smell was what must have warned Booker something was wrong.

'What happened here? Did Ryan's forces attack?'

Someone walked across the mouth of the corridor, but didn't bother looking down it. He had ADAM scars and carried a shotgun. But he was dressed in civilian clothes, not the uniform of Rapture Security. What interested her was the green cloth he had tied on his left arm. It must be something to identify a friend from the enemy. He stood near tunnel entrance and giggled as he watching the grocery store burn.

*Booker, you didn't buy anything green did you?*

*No, but I think be a good idea to "borrow" from something green from that guy.*

He snuck up to the passage entrance and quickly looked around the corner. There were two more men facing away from them with green cloths tied on their arms. They were kneeling on the ground searching a pair of dead bodies. No one else was in sight.

Booker quietly snuck up behind the giggling splicer as he watched the fire burn and hit in the back of the head. The stunned man staggered, but didn't fall. Booker hit him again, but harder and she heard a sickening crunch. As the man fell, he grabbed him and quickly dragged him back down the tunnel. The Securis door was still open and the unconscious man was unceremoniously dumped at the top of the stairs after Booker removed the green cloth and took his wallet.

After tying the cloth around his left arm, Booker walked out into the plaza like he belonged there. One of the men searching the bodies glanced up, but returned to what he was doing. They could see most of the plaza now. Sinclair's Spirit had three people standing near the door drinking and smashing bottles on the floor. There was heavy smoke coming down the tunnel from where the apartments were. She counted twenty one bodies in the plaza. Many of them didn't have any kind of weapon.

The passageway that had been boarded up the first time they had been here had been blown open. Whoever had done it had used too much explosives and the archway had been damaged. Before too long it would likely collapse. Two people, a man and a woman were over by the soon to occur structural failure talking in a rather animated fashion.

They seemed to be happy with slaughter about them.

A glance to the left showed there were people looting the used goods store. These people were heavily armed compared to the former locals. Many of them had shotguns or tommy guns. The few not so armed certainly had Plasmids for weapons. In a fight Booker would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

"Damn" Booker cursed under his breath. Several men stood at the entrance they needed to take to get back to Prosperity Way. He altered course slightly, heading for the back of Sinclair's and the Doctor's Office.

*Going to the Doctor's Office to see if it has a window to get us around the people at the entrance?*

*Yeah, don't want to get to close. Would probably realize they don't know me.*

*I'm not quite sure what's going on here. These seem to be Ryan supporters, but I don't see anyone from Rapture Security. Shouldn't they have command of something like this?*

*Would guess these people are some kind of self-proclaimed militia and decided to attack by themselves. Heard about things like this during the Civil War, American Civil War, not Columbia's.*

*People killing each other for the likes of Ryan and Atlas.* She didn't try and hid her disgust at it all.

*Wouldn't surprise me if some of these people don't care about Ryan or Atlas. Just an excuse to settle old scores, get some loot or just kill someone.*

They were walking around the back of Sinclair's now. The body of a woman lay in the middle of the alley, shot in back at least five times. The door to the Doctor's office was open, but Booker stopped a moment to listen for activity inside, but heard nothing. They looked inside and found two more bodies. They looked as if they had tried to run away from the door. She noted that none of the six chairs matching each other.

Booker bent down and put his hand on the face of the dead woman to close her eyes. "Happened quick." Turned out pockets on the man indicated that someone had already searched the bodies for any valuables they might have been carrying.

*While we were down in Rust Alley, they managed to kill all these people.* Some of these people had tried to attack Booker, but she hadn't wanted them dead. They hadn't deserved this.

They went through the door to the back and stepped into a short corridor. To the left was an empty examination room. This doctor had not been well off. Everything was second hand and worn. To the right what looked to be an office with a small desk, two chairs and four battered filing cabinets. The contents of the cabinets had been thrown around the room.

The other examination room was next and it was occupied by the remains of a man and a woman. The man had a white doctor's coat on and the woman, a nurse's uniform. The man's body was on his back his hands over his head. Behind him huddled in a corner, was the woman.

"Usually don't kill doctors, even in war." he told her grimly.

*Ryan or Atlas aren't the type of people to follow rules.*

"Seems to hold for a lot of people down here."

The door to the next room had been broken down and looked to have been where they stored medicine. All the bottles, jars and containers had been knocked to the floor and broken. Lying atop the broken glass was the corpse of a splicer wearing a green armband. The body was on its back and there was a large amount of blood around his nose and ears.

*Wonder what killed him?*

"This maybe?" Booker said as he shifted the broken glass with the Air Grabber to reveal part of a broken Infusion bottle.

*Huh. We knew that Infusion could kill, but no one ever said how. It looks like he died from Tear Sickness. That actually makes sense. The Luteces invented Infusions, so it's logical they would have something to do with alternate realities or at least altering probability.*

"So Infusions don't use ADAM?"

*Be very surprised if there did. The Luteces were physicists, not biologists. Suchong probably just copied their work without understanding it.* 'No surprise there.'

"Probably why I can use 'em. Had a lot of practice with Tear Sickness."

*That you do.*

He stood up and looked around a moment. "Wonder if there's another one around."

On the other side of the room was small wall mounted cabinet. A hand written sign on it read "Danger". There had been a lock on it at one point, but it had been broken off. Booker opened the door to reveal an Infusion. He checked it over to make sure the container was undamaged and quickly drank it.

"Feel better already."

*Why Do you say that?*

"Always feel better after drinking one of them, even if I just boost my Shield."

*I guess. Rather odd they would have Infusions in a Doctor's office.*

"If you got a case of Tear Sickness, where would you want to be?"

*In a Hospital or a Doctor's Office. This place doesn't seem to be the most well equipped though.*

"Desperate people take desperate chances." Booker told her as he bent down to check the corpse for anything of value. Twenty Eight dollars, a Pep Bar and another Rapture ID.

They left the room, Booker's footsteps muffled by the Gear. The only door left was one at the end of the hall. This door must have been locked when that attack occurred as the lock had been shot out. On the other side was a stairway going up.

*The Doctor's family must have lived up there.*

"Hope they didn't have any children home."

The stairs led to a small living room, but it had been torn apart. Booker reached down and picked up a framed picture with cracked glass. It showed the murdered doctor in a tuxedo and the nurse in a wedding gown. The background showed trees, it must have been on the surface.

Booker respectfully put the picture down on a nearby table and proceeded to look through the apartment. There was a kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms and all had been ransacked just as the living room had been. Fortunately, they didn't find another body. In the larger of the two bedrooms they found the window they had been looking for. On the floor in front of it was an Audio Diary.

_James Alfred: Change of Plans_

_March 2, 1957_

_Jenny and I came to Rapture it was to get away from the corrupt phony world. It took us years to figure out that it wasn't the world that was phony, it was us. Now we are down here in Rapture's underbelly giving medical care to the people here. We may not have a lot of money, but we are rich beyond our wildest dreams. _

_I hope that our son will be able to understand it someday. _

*This city seems to destroy or corrupt everything decent it touches.*

Booker seemed like he was about to say something, but stopped. Instead he looked around on the floor for a few moments and picked up another picture. It was of a young man and at the bottom was written "Thomas, Feb, 3 1957." Booker studied the face a moment clearly intent on memorizing it.

*Thinking of going and looking for him?*

"Probably not a good idea, but if I happen to see him... Let's get going."

He carefully opened the window doing his best to keep it from making noise.

There was another "Rapture Reminder" playing over the loudspeakers, but she couldn't make out what it was saying, not that she tried very hard. Booker looked out the window back towards the plaza and could see the two men still standing there. Fortunately they both faced the other direction.

Booker climbed out the window, careful to make as little noise as possible. He was almost out when the duffle bag on his shoulder chose that moment to slide off his shoulder. He barely managed to catch it before it fell to the ground and alerted to the two men.

They dropped to the ground without making a sound and quickly went down the alley to the Securis Door that would take them back to Prosperity Way.

The door slow rumbled open in its usual fashion and Booker looked back down the alley. Worried about the noise attracting someone's attention. After it opened he quickly went through and hurried down the corridor.

It was getting hard to concentrate. *Booker, what time is it?* He got his watch out of his pocket. 'Going to have to get him to start wearing one on his wrist.' As she expected, it was about time for Anna to have her afternoon nap.

*Get some sleep.* Booker said gently as things faded away.

…

Things faded in slowly. It was hard to focus, groggy. Her mind felt strange. What? Did something happen to her? She was looking at a table? A typewriter, pens. Cards with pictures. A hand that was writing. It took a few moments to realize they were Rapture Identification cards and it was Booker's hand. Now she remembered. These were the cards they found in the smuggler's shed and taken from the attackers on Fortune Avenue. Booker was very carefully copying an "official signature" onto a new card. Booker worked fast, it looked almost done. It even had Booker's picture on it already.

The feeling that something had happened to her, to Anna, didn't go away. The worst part was it somehow felt familiar. Booker was working on the cards and it looked like delicate work so she didn't want to disturb him. She needed to think. This would be easier if she didn't feel so, fuzzy.

Fuzzy, groggy. Back in her tower she would feel like this sometimes. She had never known why and hadn't thought about it since Booker broke her out. She rebuilt her bedroom in her mind, things were blurry in places. Her left arm hurt and...

Her arm hurt?

The inside of her left arm, the median cubital vein. Why would…?

Blood. They had taken blood from her.

There was no way she would have slept through something like that. The watchers in the Tower must have drugged her to take a blood sample. Her hair as well. Well, she knew what became of one of those hair samples. Her mouth had hurt a few times as well. Dental work? Not important now.

Anna had been drugged just as she had been, but why? Why did she feel that something had been taken from her? Maybe Booker could see something she was missing.

Booker finished up his work. It didn't look like he had tried to do anything fancy. Just a basic Identification Card that an average citizen would have.

*You do nice work Booker.*

"Elizabeth! Your..." he blurted *Are you all right?* he sounded more than a little worried.

*I… think so. Why?*

*You've been asleep four, almost five hours.*

'What?' *That long?*

*Yes, I've been worried. I thought I heard you say something a couple of times, but I couldn't make it out.*

*Booker, I think they did something to Anna. Made her go to sleep with drugs.*

"Why would they do that?"

*I don't know. It somehow feels the same way I did when they took samples from me back in Columbia.*

"Saw some of them. Hair, blood, fingernails, things taken from you rooms. They kept it all to try and figure out where your powers came from."

*But Anna doesn't have any powers. She's normal, right?* She couldn't have Tear Abilities, could she? No, Booker would have told and she knew she feel it somehow.

*She has all her fingers and doesn't open tears. She's normal… no, *was* normal.*

That was it. *She's a Little Sister now.* Should have thought of that. Still wasn't thinking clearly.

*ADAM. That's what they wanted. Anna probably doesn't cooperate all that much.*

*So they put her to sleep to make her more manageable.*

"Likely." Booker seemed calm, but she knew that anger was boiling inside him. She didn't feel angry, just sick that it was all happening again.

*It's not anything she can't handle.* Wait, what did that letter from Tenenbaum say?

*Anna may not remember much of this at all.*

"What makes you say that?" there was some hope in his voice, but also worry.

*I found a letter from Tenenbaum to Suchong asking to mend his ways.* Booker snorted. *Yeah, a lot of good it did. But in it she said that the Little Sisters would forget. I wouldn't have gone and set everything in motion unless I was sure the Little Sister's would have a real chance to have normal lives.*

"Guess I'll have to trust your judgment then." He sounded better now.

'Never thought when I was saving the Little Sisters that I would be saving Anna as well.'

*So what's all this on the table? Where did you get a typewriter?*

"Pawn Shop. Have a lot of stuff in there, think more than a little of it stolen."

*I am *shocked* a pawn shop would accept stolen goods.*

"Actually most pawn shops try very hard not to buy anything stolen. If the real owner comes around, they can lose money or get charged with receiving stolen goods."

*And what's different about the King's Pawn?*

"Cop don't care right now, makes it easy."

*Well, they do have to worry about Atlas. Can I look at the ID cards?*

Booker spread all the ID's out on the table and picked up a magnifying glass. "Anything you want me to look at?"

*The one we took off the dead splicer in the doctors' office and the one you made please.*

She spent several minutes looking them over. *I really can't tell the difference in quality. How did you find a typewriter with the same font as Rapture Security uses?"

He gave a short laugh and turned the typewriter over. A small plaque on the bottom proclaimed it "Property of The Rapture Security".

"Said they had stolen goods in there."

*One question though. I noticed the signature was a little different on the one you made. Shouldn't you get them as close as possible?*

"One of the first things I learned. People never sign their names the same every time. Always a little different."

*Flaws can make things more realistic?*

"Sometimes. Very few things are perfect. If seems too good...

*It probably is. So what else did they have?*

"Two Gear, cameras, jewelry, tools, office equipment. Didn't really look at it all."

*Gear, in a pawn shop?* That didn't seem right.

"Yeah, apparently they aren't all that popular. Gene Tonics can do the same thing and do it better most of the time. Gear tends to be inconsistent. Or as the guy at the pawn shop said, "unreliable"."

*But Gear won't give you ADAM sickness.*

"People don't seem to care about that much."

*So what should we do next?*

"Need to get rid of these other ID cards. Be bad to be caught with them. Not sure what to do with the typewriter. Don't want to give the Constables an excuse to do something."

*An excuse?*

"Yeah, if the cops want to put someone in jail for a big crime and they don't have any proof, they'll arrest a suspect for something small and use it to as an excuse to investigate more."

*I don't think you could sell it back.*

"No, might have a need for it later. Too big for cache."

*That abandoned office between here and the cache. We could lock it in the other room.*

"That would work. Just put it out of sight and lock the door. Even if someone gets in, shouldn't pay attention to it."

*So got the rest of this at the pawn shop?*

"Yeah, as I said they had a lot in there."

*So, where's the camera?*

"Camera? Oh, the picture. Got that at an automatic camera booth at the drugstore. Thought the owner was going toss me out when I didn't buy anything else."

*People are on edge. Do you think you could go back to the pawn shop?*

"Want to see what's there?" she knew he was smiling.

*Best to see what's there for myself. And we need to get you a new watch.*

"What's wrong with the one I have?"

*Almost no one in Rapture uses a pocket watch. They have wrist watches.*

"Humph. Guess they don't. Must have gotten popular since 1912."

*I didn't expect you to agree that quickly.*

"Saw a couple of officers in the Army that had them. Easier to look at your wrist then to get the watch out riding a horse. Be about time for supper when we get done."

*Going to cook anything?*

"Not now. Had lunch at the diner, thought I would get supper there. After that, pick up some food at Cho's Grocers."

*Going to be different to see you grocery shopping. That's very domestic of you.*

Booker rolled his eyes. "Let's see what else is in King's Pawn first."

End Chapter 26


	27. Chapter 27

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 27

-Elizabeth-

The King's Pawn was as Booker had described it. It was packed full of all kinds of things. Musical instruments, record players, records, jewelry, furniture, books, office equipment, fine china, artwork, bottles of wine and even a suit of medieval armor. The employee behind the counter was arguing with a woman over how much the piece of jewelry she was trying to pawn was worth. The three people behind the woman waited impatiently as the argument continued. The last one, a splicer twitched in a strange way.

Other than Booker there were only four other people looking at items in the shop. She really couldn't tell if they looking to buy something or just window shopping. Something seemed a little off to her.

*Booker, I don't much about pawn shops, but there seems to be a lot in here and not many people.*

*You're not wrong. Not many people are buying. That's why guy behind the counter smiled when we came in. I bought something.*

*The economy is falling apart and everything in here is losing its value. Guess we should buy now while the prices are good. Where are those Gear you mentioned?*

*Back wall. Said they were "Evil Eye" and "Parasite".*

*Don't know about Parasite, but Comstock had Evil Eye. It's like the Rising Bloodlust from Columbia, but you have to be using your sights in order to activate it.*

*Let's hope I won't have to use that often.*

As they walked to the back of the shop they passed several guitars mounted on the walls. Booker eyed one in particular. It probably did look strange to him with its solid body design.

*That's an electric guitar. I've heard one played a few times. I think they're used in the songs we heard from the tears in Columbia and that song earlier today.*

*Electric Guitar.* he seemed a bit dubious.

*They need a speaker and other equipment to work properly. I do know is one good thing about them.*

*What's that?*

*Cohen absolutely Hates them.*

"Humph." They were at the back counter now and a short blond haired man came up to them. "So you're still interested in the Gear?"

"Yeah, were you able to find out what that Parasite Gear does?" Booker asked politely.

"From the description there is a 50% chance that whenever you physically strike a splicer you heal up a little and get some EVE. Also found out about the other one."

"I'll take both."

The clerk was bit surprised by that, then he shrugged. "Just remember if something happens, King's Pawn takes has no responsibility."

'Not taking responsibility seems to be common down here.'

"I know." Booker somehow managed to keep his tone friendly. "Going to look around a little then I'll be back."

*Want to look at anything?*

*Don't think we need a suit of armor. Guess we could see if there are any good books here.*

*Nothing that wasn't in your library. They seem to have bought only old books.*

*Nothing on lock picking?* He really could stand to learn.

*Ah, no. Mostly just old plays and philosophy.*

*Guess we can look at the tools and equipment they have here.*

*Hmm. If I'm going to pretend to be a workman, guess I should have the tools.*

They spent five minutes picking out some tools and they even found a tool box for them. Booker was surprised that tools had changed so little since 1912. As he looked at tools though, he seemed to be studying the security of the shop.

*Are you planning something Booker?*

*Plannin' ahead. Get the idea that things are going to get bad down here before we get out.*

*And?*

*Diamonds, jewelry and the like may end up not being worth a whole lot.* He started to scratch his face then stopped.

*You're planning to rob this place?* Incredible!

*Not yet. Just keeping the option open.*

*But if you think diamonds and jewelry are going to lose all their value, why steal them?*

*We ARE going to get out of Rapture and when we do...*

*We're going to need money and so will the Little Sisters.* That made sense.

*Right. Most will be orphans and those that aren't, might as well be.* he said sadly.

*Since their parents will be splicers.*

*Yeah.* She knew Booker was starting to worry that Anna could be one of those "splicer orphans". There had to be a cure someplace, somehow.

After choosing a rugged looking steel watch, they walked to the back and picked up the Gear and went to pay of it. As they approached the register a screaming match erupted at the counter. A man was angrily demanding for the pawn shop to buy what he was trying to sell and the clerk was refusing. Booker's eyes weren't on the people arguing, but the twitchy splicer standing behind them. He was twitching more and seemed to be mumbling something. Booker hung back to keep clear.

The splicer's hands started clinching and he started speaking louder, then he stated to scream. "stop yelling, stop yelling, Stop Yelling, STOP YELLING!" and he put his hands over his ears.

The argument continued unabated. He suddenly pulled out a large knife out and slit the throat of the man ahead of him, then shoved the dying man away all the time screaming at him to "Stop Yelling!".

Booker swiftly drew his autopistol, but didn't get a chance to fire. The man behind the counter reached down and a shotgun blast tore apart the front to the counter and the splicer standing in front of it.

Booker lowered his gun quickly, not wanting the situation to escalate. He looked at the shotgun damaged counter front for a moment. "Painted cardboard." he muttered. Through the gaping hole in the counter they could see a sawed off double barreled shotgun held in some kind of swivel mounting.

The man behind the counter called out. "Mark, clean up the mess."

"Boss, I did it last time. Why can't Bill do it?"

*Last time?* they repeated as one. *How often does this happen?*

*Enough I guess.* Booker told her.

"Because I told you to do it, not Bill. Now get going."

Mark grumbled "Yes, sir." and left the register to make the call. The "Boss" took Mark's place behind the register and motioned Booker over. The other people in store returned to their business without much reaction.

Booker paid for the items and left the pawn shop.

*It's almost like an infection.*

"What is?"

*The violence, insanity. It's spreading from the splicers to the normal people.*

"Don't think a lot of these people are normal."

*Not normal?*

"Takes a certain kind of person to buy into Ryan's philosophy."

*People that really don't care about anyone but themselves.*

"And those that don't join Ryan get put in jail like Clarice and her people."

*Or they join Atlas. There has to be another option.*

"Only thing I can think of is to keep our heads down until they kill each other."

They were near the Gather's Garden now and she noticed a female splicer in a battered fancy dress pushing a baby carriage. That sparked a thought.

*Booker, do remember seeing any children?*

"No, now that you mention it." He looked around the area a moment.

*When I was here before, I saw children all the time.* Booker kept an eye on the woman with the carriage as he walked. The carriage looked in poor shape. Battered and discolored by a dark stains. Most other people were ignoring the woman and a few moved to avoid her. But she had a big smile on her face and waved to those around her.

As they got a little closer she realized the stains were dark red color.

"Hell." Booker whispered. He realized what the stains were at the same time she did.

*How many?* she asked softly.

*How many….?*

*Children. How children have died and will die in this war?*

*Too many.* he replied sadly

*Booker, I started this war. I…*

*You didn't start this war any more than you started The Vox Revolt in Columbia. Ryan and Fontaine caused all this.*

*I let Atlas out of his prison.*

*When you decided that, you could see behind all the doors, right.*

*Yes, but I can't remember what I saw.*

*So you would have seen what would have happened if you *didn't* let Atlas out.*

They were almost to the room now.

*Yes, I would have known… You're saying I should trust myself, aren't you.*

*Well, yeah. You must have seen that what would happen is worse than this.*

*I just wish I could remember so I would know for sure.*

Booker checked to make sure the door hadn't been opened while they had been gone, then got out the room key to open the door.

*I'm sure you did the right thing. Smart enough to pay off a debt and not rack up a bigger one doing it.*

She hoped Booker's faith in her was justified.

-Booker-

He jolted awake. Heart Pounding. Panting like he'd been running miles with full pack. Drenched in sweat. Black. He concentrated on slowing down his breathing and swallowed hard. Bad dream. Worst one in a while.

He looked around. Not totally dark, a green glow on his right dissolved into numbers 1 through 12 set in a circle. There were arrows pointing at the numbers. A short one pointed at the 5 and a longer one at the 1. Clock. Clock with glowing numbers. What was that doing in his bedroom? That's something you would find in Rapture.

Rapture?

Damn.

He was in Rapture and Anna wasn't down the hall asleep in her room.

He rubbed his face and fumbled for the lamp on the night stand and averted his eyes as light flooded the room. In bare feet he stumbled to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. After a few minutes he made his way back to the bed, sat down on the edge and wished he had a candle to light. Looked down a moment, didn't even have a nightshirt on, but pajamas. He did have to say that they were as comfortable as Elizabeth said they would be.

They had decided to wait until tomorrow to move everything. Heading down an unused passage twice in a day might attract unwanted attention. So they went to the diner to eat, then picked up the latest newspaper and a couple of magazines "Science and You" along with "Magnate".

The last stop was Cho's Grocers. They both were slightly surprised that there was so little food on the shelves. Elizabeth said the prices were at least double what they had been. He had been looking forward to some eggs in the morning, but the store didn't have any and he was forced to settle on flakes made from seaweed. Probably tasted as bad as it sounded.

The newspaper didn't have any overly useful information, but it gave him a little better feel for Rapture. "Science and You" was a disappointment for Elizabeth since she seemed to know just about everything in it already. He managed to learn about some of the technologies of Rapture though. They talked a little while and planned to go to the Welcome Center after setting up the cache. First stop would be the Medical Wing. It was the center of the medicine down here and should have some connection to the Little Sisters. From there they could start to discover the locations of the Little Wonder Facilities and see if he would be able to sneak into one.

Or force his way in. He wasn't exactly worried out the health of the people who took little girls and turned them into Little Sisters. Couldn't do much more planning right now. Better find something to do. It was one of those nights that it would be so easy to take a drink. Part of him wanted to get that bottle of scotch and open it up.

No, never again.

It was easier if he went and did something. He got dressed in some of the new (to him) work clothes, made the bed and headed down to the lobby. He was going to have to remember to ask Elizabeth how they handled washing clothes down here. The lounge was closed and no one was around other than the clerk behind the desk.

He walked out onto the avenue a short way. The Securis doors were closed now. But every once in a while one would open to allow someone to pass. Most of the shops were closed, even the Kings Pawn. A few people were still in the Pharaoh's Fortune and the Le Nouveau Temps had music coming from it, so it was still open. Someone was at the newsstand, but it looked as if they had not opened yet. Over the speakers another of those damn messages from Ryan played.

_And so, I asked myself, in what country was there a place for men like me? Men who refused to say yes to the Parasites and the doubters. Men who believed that work was sacred and property rights inviolate. And then one day the happy answer came to me, my friends: there was NO country for people like me. And THAT was the moment I decided... to build one._

Property rights. Anna as property. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Always seemed to anger more easily after one of the nightmares. For what he done, he deserved much worse than a few nightmares though. Didn't feel hungry, but he walked down to the diner anyway. Maybe get a cup of coffee.

Or what passed for coffee down here.

As walked towards the diner he noticed the Circus of Values in front of Cho's Grocers. Might as well Bypass it while he was here. A minute later he checked the prices. A bottle of EVE was double the cost of an injectable. On the way back he would buy some more to build up a stockpile. Sooner or later they would probably stop making drinkable EVE. Maybe already have and were selling off old stock. Before too long there would probably be no trace of Columbia's drinkables left in Rapture.

As he walked to the diner he noticed a man wrapped in dark brown blankets. Wearing blankets was odd enough, but they had been arranged so that they looked like a monks robes. You couldn't see the person's face, but he could have sworn that eyes glowed. Something about the monk was familiar in a bad way.

Going to keep an eye on him or her. Hard to tell which it was.

He looked up towards the North Fork and the Tear. Seemed to be closed at the moment. Went into the diner, got a coffee and sat nursing it was about twenty minutes thinking about nothing in particular.

When he was finished, he paid his bill and started back towards the Renascence. He glanced at the Tear again and saw it was open. He looked to make sure the woman from yesterday wasn't around and went to see what the Tear was doing. A man was singing, more like yelling.

…_wait till the party's over_

_Hold tight We're in for nasty weather_

_There has got to be a way_

_Burning down the house_

(1)

The volume of the music wobbled a fair amount and the Tear itself looked unstable, even for a tear. He didn't think that these tears would last much longer. No great loss.

He went back to the Values machine and bought the EVE bottles. A short time later he was back in the room and he picked up "Magnate". Might was well learn something, even if it was propaganda.

In an odd way it was interesting learning about Ryan. He was a little bit like, what's the name? Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie. An immigrant who built himself up from near nothing. Don't think that Ryan was going to be spending his money building libraries though. The communists or bolsheviks as Ryan called them, seemed to be more than a little like the Vox.

The entire time he had been awake he would sometimes talk to Elizabeth and act like she responded. He ought to feel foolish for doing that, but whatever told him to act like Elizabeth wasn't real was still there. Least he didn't see her now. He spent a few minutes getting everything packed. Most of the gems and the two new bottles of EVE for the cache, the typewriter for the locked work area. Hoped he didn't get in a fight carrying all this stuff. It would really slow him down.

Better change into his suit. Workman's clothes wouldn't be the best for this.

Hmph. 'Bout time to eat something. He bit the bullet and tried the seaweed flakes. Surprisingly, they didn't taste as bad as he thought they would. Still wanted scrambled eggs and bacon. As he washed the dishes he heard Elizabeth start to rouse. Anna had gone to sleep earlier yesterday. Elizabeth warned him to expect that as a side effect of the drugs they had given her.

*Morning.* She said, still sounding a bit drowsy.

*Good morning.*

*Done with breakfast I see. Anything new happen?*

*No. Just finishing up, then we can set up the cache.*

*You sound a little tired.*

'Not easy to hide anything from her.' *Bad night.*

*Oh.* She understood. Had a few bad nights herself he guessed. Thank God Anna didn't have nightmares except very rarely and those could have just been normal dreams a child has. He hoped they had been.

"Not the first and not going to be the last."

He finished with dishes and picked up the bag. Before he closed the door he looked back at the room to note the location of everything and make sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

*I didn't expect things to be quite so neat. I think you could bounce a coin off that bed.*

"Being sober does wonders for a person's ability to clean."

He set the threads and headed for the elevator and on their way to set up the cache. There were no problems and in about an hour they were back on Fortune Avenue. They stopped at the newsstand, but didn't see anything worth reading.

_For a limited time, get a free Plasmid by Ryan Industries at Dandy Dental with any root canal. Choose from Slimdown and Telekinesis. Offer good while supplies last. _

"Don't they have maps around this place?" he grumbled as they started off towards the Welcome Center.

*Not really. These buildings are connected on multiple floors and different locations. You would need a lot of maps to cover them all. Worried about getting lost?* She asked lightly.

"Would rather avoid it. Not a lot to navigate by in this place.*

*Guess we'll just have to memorize it like everyone else does.*

"Well, can't be any worse than tunnels in Chinatown."

*Chinatown? You mean there are tunnels in New York City?*

"Yeah. Quite a number actually. Just getting around above ground wasn't easy. Alleys, streets and walkways going all different directions. Underground was worse and even more dangerous."

*Even for you?*

"Especially for me since I'm not Chinese. Chinatown is like a whole 'nuther world. It' own rules, language and economy."

*And they don't like people from the outside.*

"Lot's a people don't like others just because they look different. Course a lot of white people don't the Chinese either."

*What a waste.*

"Get no argument from me."

Halfway to the Welcome Center they encountered a small rest area and tunnel that branched off towards Fort Frolic. Three workmen were busy installing a Security Camera that could see everyone as they came through. A hard faced constable watched them carefully as if expecting one of the workers to try something.

*If he puts up enough of those cameras up, Ryan will be able to watch everyone in the city. *

*They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.*

*Benjamin Franklin?* She seemed a little surprised.

*Comstock did read everything written by the Founding Fathers. When he didn't like something, it got removed or rewritten.*

She rolled her eyes. *Let me guess. He rewrote things because the Founding Fathers had either been misquoted or someone deliberately changed what they really said.*

*Yep. They would have hated Comstock if they ever met him.*

Soon they were at the Welcome Center. The tunnel they entered through ended in a multistory atrium full of banners and a huge statue of a hand holding a chain mounted on one wall. A huge banner over it proclaimed "The Great Chain Is Guided By Our Hand." A skylight far over their head allowed in a pale green light. The entrance they came through was at least 40 feet off the floor and over to the right the right was an elevator. On the bottom floor were two pools of water with plants growing around them and a stairway leading down.

*I think the stairs down there lead to the bathysphere bay where we arrived in 1960.*

"Ever get a chance to sightsee, might take a look."

They had to take the elevator down to the bottom floor then take another elevator up to the same level they had been on. Elizabeth noted the poor design saying it would have been very easy to put a walkway that connected both sides. They threaded through several corridors and past the Footlight Theater. They encountered several signs stating that the Kashmir Restaurant was closed. Elizabeth explained that was where Atlas kicked of his revolt by bombing the place. Damage from the bombing was still evident. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed, bullet holes in the walls and even News Year's Eve decorations sitting here and there.

And more than a few blood stains.

There were a fair number of people passing through the area, but not many staying. Most seemed to be workers and more than a few had chest high waders on and smelled of fish. Many of them had ADAM scars. He figured only about one in five was unspliced, if that. There were more constables here than on Prosperity, but they didn't pay much attention to him.

*Booker, those cameras. Do you suppose that Ryan could be watching them himself?*

He had to think a moment. *Yeah, seems the type.* Comstock had established a military style command structure in Columbia and had underlings carry out his orders and policies. He only rarely gave direct orders or took personal action. Except when Elizabeth or "The False Shepard" were involved of course. Ryan didn't seem to be that way though. He would be the type to try and control everything.

Didn't seem like a good way to run a city to him.

*Ryan can't know you're here. So we need to do something about your face.*

Might was well play along. *Well, we are going to the Medical Pavilion. Suppose that Steinman fella could change my looks?*

*I wasn't talking…ehm.* Took a moment for her to realize he was joking. *On second though. Maybe you Should have some work done. Make it so every woman you meet doesn't make a pass at you.* And she said it so sweetly.

He chuckled softly. *So what are thinking for a disguise?*

*Rather obvious don't you think? Wear a mask.*

*Actually I did, but if I had ADAM scars not all of them would be covered by the mask. And if I lost the mask people would start to wonder why I had one on in the first place.*

*You could use makeup.*

*Makeup?*

*Hm. That's right, they really didn't have much back in 1912. With a little bit of work, we can make it look like you have ADAM scars. You probably won't need to do much, just make you skin discolored. Maybe add some texture.*

*Have to think about that a little.*

*Don't worry, your manliness won't be effected.* she said with a smile.

They went down a flight of ornate staircase to the Transit Hub. Small pieces of concrete littered the stairs and a leak from above made things slippery. To the right was Neptune's Bounty and to the left the Medical Pavilion.

A short walk later they came to a heavy airlock. The style was less art-deco and more like the older watertight doors they had seen in Rust Ally. Five other people were in the airlock with him. One in work clothes, two woman in fancy dresses and two men in suits. All had some form of ADAM scars and some kind of mask on. Two birds, a rabbit, a crab and the worker had a cloth sack on his head with holes cut for the nose and mouth.

One of the women was talking to herself. "1, 2, 3 pick up a pea. 1, 2, 3 more for me, 1, 2, 3…"

His hand didn't stray far from his autopistol as the heavy door slammed shut behind them. A few moments later its twin started opening ahead of them.

A pleasant female voice came over the loudspeakers.

_Welcome to the Medical Pavilion. Please remember, medical staff is not bound by the Hippocratic Oath. This message was brought to you the Endwell Life and Health Group. Visit our office in the Medical Pavilion for all your health insurance needs! _

*That's subtle. Guess the Hippocratic Oath is some of that "petty morality" Ryan thinks so little of.*

*Not surprised, are you?*

*No.* he said sadly. * Let's see if there's anything here about the Little Sisters.*

End Chapter 27

(1) "Burning Down The House" by the Talking Heads


	28. Chapter 28

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 28

-Booker-

*I never visited the Medical Pavilion when I was here before. Rapture has made great strides in medicine, but I wonder if any of it wasn't based on using ADAM.*

Everyone filed out of the airlock into the corridor. Booker made sure he was the last one out. The others headed to the right without hesitation. Guess they had been here before. Didn't look like there had been much fighting here yet. He glanced to the left and saw some kind of strange glass chamber that hummed and buzzed. Bolts of green white energy shot around inside of it. Looked brand new. He remembered seeing one of them at the Bathysphere station just before going to the Sea of Doors. This one was working though.

*Huh. I guess they're being put all over Rapture now despite the war.*

A nearby sign had a drawing of the Vita-Chamber with "Introducing the Future of Health And Wellness" at the top and "Restore Vigor and Spirit With the Touch Of A Button" below it. Looked like there where large stylized wings on each side.

He heard someone coming up behind him so he backed closer to the wall and half turned so he could see who it was. Turned out to be attractive dark skinned woman in a nurse's uniform. She smiled sweetly as he turned to face her.

"Interested in our new Vita-Chamber I see. I'm sorry, but those are not available for use by the public yet." The woman's smile was professional, but a glint in her eye indicated a little more than professional interest in him. Probably wasn't going to improve Elizabeth's mood.

He put on a soft smile and asked. "Guess I'm a little interested. Any idea how this works?" Thought he heard Elizabeth grumble, but wasn't sure.

"Oh, these devices are very advanced. They involve quantum entanglement and plasmid reconstruction. I have to say I really don't understand it all. There's a rumor that you could even bring the dead back to life."

"That's…impressive." He had a few suspicions about how these Vita-Chambers worked.

"So are you planning to be here long?" the nurse asked sweetly.

"Not too long." He said with false regret. "Got some business to take care of and..."

"Nurse Carmichael! You're supposed to be in surgery!"

Booker looked past Nurse Carmichael to see a tall athletic looking doctor with impossibly handsome features come storming up.

The nurse turned "I'm sorry Doctor Wilson! I'll be right there!" She turned back to him a moment and with a smile softly said "Hope you come back." before turning to walking off, swinging her hips more than necessary.

Doctor Wilson walked up and gave a haughty disapproving look at Booker. He just stood there and smiled back at the doctor. It wasn't a pleasant smile. The doctors' face twitched when he realized that Booker wasn't intimidated. While the doctor was as tall as Booker and looked strong, he didn't move like it.

'Probably used a lot of ADAM to look like that.'

Wilson seemed to realize that there was little he could do to Booker and backed up little. "I hope you enjoy you stay in the Medical Pavilion." He said in a tone clearly at odds with his words and strode off.

*What was HIS problem?*

*Suspect he thinks I'm poaching on his territory.*

*Poaching? The nurse?* She couldn't quite believe it.

*Probably has been trying to get her into bed with him for awhile.*

*And he doesn't like it that she's interested in you. Too bad.*

*Oh, so you like Nurse Carmichael?* he asked pleasantly.

She glared at him. *I didn't say that.* She paused to change the subject. *So why are you interested in these Vita-Chambers?*

*Think these Vita-Chambers have something to do with one of the formulas I saw up by the Tear Machine.*

*Hmm. I suspect Suchong might have gotten help from Fink for these.*

*To bring someone back from the dead, might be able to do it.* Dying hurts. He knew better than most what it felt like and coming back is a shock as well.

'What would it do to your average person?'

*Don't You DARE!* she practically screamed at him.

"Wha?..."

*Don't even THINK of trying to bring me back with one of these things!* She was furious! No, he realized, *scared*.

*Elizabeth please calm down. I wasn't thinking anything like that at all.*

*You.. you weren't?*

*No, how could I bring you back? You're *already* alive.*

She looked down and folded her arms as if she were cold. *I'm sorry. I, I should have known better.* She was clearly embarrassed and sorry about her outburst. *Shouldn't have gotten mad at you.*

He wished he could hold her. He'd learned that sometimes just quick squeeze of her hand or picking her up for a hug did more to help Anna than any amount of talking could. *It's ok. Not a problem.* he told her gently.

*It's just… I don't want to be me, Elizabeth, anymore. After you died, I stopped caring about myself. I worked for Sander Cohen for months and tolerated his abuse. I dressed like some movie "femme fatale" and strutted around to attract Comstock's attention. I even Danced with him.* she explained with disgust and sadness in her voice.

So that was why she looks like that.

*Then, when Atlas was lobotomizing me, I dared him to do it. Told him he would be doing me a favor. And I meant it.*

*Lobotomize?* Hadn't heard that term before, but it didn't sound good.

*Someone puts thin metal rod through the eye socket into the brain. Then they move it around to sever the connections between the two halves of the brain.*

He felt sick. She had gone through that? He had known that her death was bad, but that?

*It would have destroyed most of my ability to think, to feel, my will. I would have been little better than a vegetable. Atlas had the rod in my eye and almost into my brain before he realized he couldn't break me.*

He relaxed slightly, but still felt sick. While he used Comstock's memories, there were some that he still locked away. The six month period Elizabeth spent in Comstock House being the some of them. The memories of Elizabeth being tortured by Comstock were something he just didn't know how to deal with. She should never have had something like that happen to her. Shouldn't happen to anybody.

*I can't really tell you what it was like when you told me I was Anna. I didn't remember. The Tower, Comstock House, killing Daisy, even all the Doors. I didn't remember any of it and was a normal girl.*

*And I was with you.* she finished softly.

*You don't have to worry. Figured out a long time ago you were happy being Anna. Doubt I could figure out this thing and don't plan tryin'.*

*Thank you.* So soft it was barely above a whisper.

He blinked. He had standing there several minutes looking at the Vita-Chamber without doing anything. *Time to get going.* He turned and headed to the foyer of the Medical Pavilion. It was a large area with a reception desk with a man working behind it and large curving staircase on either side leading upwards. To the left was a Circus of Values and a doorway with "Emergency Access" in neon lights over it. There were a number of people in the area either talking or going about their business. Posters on the walls advertised Dr. Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals and Accu-Vox.

As he went to Bypass the Circus of Values he noticed something on the floor behind the machine. It was an Audio Diary.

_J.S. Steinman: No Opportunity_

_December 08, 1958_

_This new tool, ADAM raises all sorts of new challenges for those in my profession. But one must have the opportunity to rise to these challenges. Making these plain people look beautiful is too easy now. I need people like those I treated during and after the war. People with their faces nearly burned off, missing most of their jaw, covered in scar tissue. THESE are the challenges that I require to attain perfection. _

He walked towards the stairway on the right and the man, a splicer with an owl mask, welcomed him to the Medical Pavilion and informed him if he had any questions he there to help.

He smiled at the man and told him no.

Elizabeth gave him a small frown. *Somehow I don't think he would help us find Anna.*

*Don't expect he would.*

She looked around the room again and then to the stairs. *If someone was badly injured, how would they get them up those stairs and to surgery quickly?*

*Doesn't seem to have been much of a consideration.*

They walked up the stairs to room with an oversized planter in the middle of it and two small alcoves. In the alcove on the right was a Little Sister Vent. In the left, a device with a large white and red cross above it.

*That a "Prime Health Unit", most people just call them Health Stations. From what I read they can heal any wound and restore you to full health in just a few moments. I have to admit it does reduce the number of surgeries that need to be performed.*

*Kinda like a First Aid Kit bolted to the wall.*

*And it never runs out.*

*Sounds handy. Come to think of it, how do the First Aid Kits work?* He had a bad thought.

*You're Not injecting ADAM if that's what you're worried about. The technology is surely related, but ADAM would be much too expensive to be used in all these Health Stations and First Aid Kits.*

That was a relief. He glanced at the advertisements on the walls and noticed one for the Health Station. Should have looked at those before asking questions. He walked down the corridor past more advertisements for Steinman's and passed another Health Station before coming to a door. Damn left side of his face wouldn't stop itching.

_Witness the origins of the most important discovery in Rapture's history: Sea Slugs, the incredible invertebrates that lead to the creation of ADAM. On display now at the Mermaid's Landing Aquarium._

*Why haven't we seen these Health Stations before?*

*They're a fairly recent development from what I read. The first ones were installed only a little while before Fontaine Department Stores were turned into prison. And even then it was only a limited number*

*Bet the war changed that.*

*They are probably installing them as fast as they can now, but it's a big city.*

In the alcove to the right was another Audio Diary.

_J.S. Steinman: A Gift_

_January 3, 1958_

_I saw a new patient today, Diane McClintock, one of Andrew Ryan's current mistresses. She was at the Kashmir when the bomb went off. She suffered no life threatening injuries, but her face suffered extensive damage. This, this is what I have been waiting for! My chance to make her perfect, to attain perfection. _

_It is like a gift, a gift from a _Goddess_._

Door hadn't opened, so he pushed a button on the door frame. Instead of a doorbell going off, the door opened up on a wall that was open on either end to allow people to walk around it. They went to the right and entered large waiting and reception area with about twenty five people in it. Most of them sitting and apparently waiting for an appointment. A few others were doctors or nurses.

They spotted a directory on the far side of the room and headed for it. *Would think with these Health Stations and First Aid kits being able to heal any injury that there wouldn't much call for this place.*

*It IS rather busy.* Elizabeth said looking slightly puzzled.

They heard yelling behind them and turned to look for the source.

A man, a splicer with a large ADAM scar on the right side of his face was yelling at a nurse.

"I was promised that this wrinkle under why eye would be fixed! It's Still There! Now I want this wrinkle removed Right Now!"

They were close enough to see that the man didn't have a wrinkle on his face. In fact his face was unnaturally smooth except for the ADAM scars.

The nurse quickly started talking to the man and he calmed down after a few moments.

*Plastic Surgery. Guess with all the ADAM use, people want to try and hide the scars if they can.*

They looked through the short directory but didn't see anything that might hint of Little Sisters.

"Guess have to do it the hard way." He muttered.

*No surprise there.*

They spent the next hour and more looking around the Medical Pavilion for any sign of Little Sister "production". They found three different dental places, the Twilight Fields Funeral Home, the Eternal Flame Crematorium, the Affordable Endings Funeral Home, Kure-All and a lounge. Nothing related to the Little Sisters other than several Vents.

Near a near a storage room on the lower floor they did find some screws, a piece of rubber hose and battery in some kind of storage crates. One of the crates had pieces of paper inside with "Dr. Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals" letterhead. It was pages after page of prayers to Aphrodite.

"Wasn't Aphrodite some Roman god?"

*Greek. She was the Goddess of love and beauty. A fitting deity for a plastic surgeon to worship I suppose. One of Steinman's surgeons must suffering from ADAM sickness.*

*Unless someone stole a lot of paper with his name on it.* He scratched his face a moment before forcing himself to stop.

*That's possible. Would explain why it's down here.*

They headed down a corridor towards Dr. Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals and saw two men coming down the corridor towards then talking about something. Or rather the man wearing a red surgical smock was talking while the other dressed in a very expensive suit just seem to be tolerating it. The man's voice was familiar.

"I don't know another way to say it Harold. With ADAM we can attain perfection! We MUST attain perfection!"

The man in the suit just nodded his head saying "Yes, yes." as if he had heard the same thing many times before.

Booker took a closer look at the man talking. *That must be Dr. Steinman. He seems bent on making Harold understand his position.*

*Think "bent" is a perfect description for him.*

As the two men got closer Booker moved to one side to allow them to pass.

Steinman realized he was there but didn't really look at him. He continued his rant and gestured at Booker. "Just look at him, plain, ordinary. He came here to make himself perfect. And that is what he MUST do! Make him perfect. That is Our responsibility!"

*You? Ordinary?* She got a good chuckle out of that.

Harold glanced at Booker, then took a closer look. Steinman noticed and turned to Booker and looked at him this time. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly. A look of enlightenment passed over the surgeon's face.

'Now what?'

"I apologize Sir. I'm Doctor Steinman." Steinman quickly said and turned back to Harold. "This! is what we need to do for every one of our patients. Just look at this! As close to perfection as I have Seen!" Steinman looked Booker's face over closely, like he was trying to figure out how it was put together. This was getting irritating and he started to continue on his way.

"No wait!" Steinman practically pleaded. "Who did this? It's is nearly flawless. Machuga? No, Parker? Impossible." He scoffed. "Certainly not that quack Anderson. Tell me, I must know!" As Steinman had been talking, Harold took the opportunity to slip away.

"Always been like this. Nobody's done anything to me." he told the doctor.

Steinman was undeterred. In fact just the opposite, it seemed to excite him. "SHE sent you, didn't she? The Goddess sent you to me!"

-Elizabeth-

'Goddess? So Steinman was the one who wrote the prayers to Aphrodite.' How was Booker going to use that?

"Yes, Aphrodite did send me to you." was all Booker could say before Steinman interrupted.

"Tell me! What does she want me to do? Please, tell me!" The man was desperate, his eyes glowed with religious intensity. It reminded her of the fanatical devotion of some of the Founders.

"I haven't seen the Goddess." Booker said with false sadness. "But she gave me a task, a quest. She told me that Steinman would help guide me."

"Yes! Let me help you!" the fervent glow in Steinman's eyes grew. "What is this quest? I will help anyway I can!"

"She said I was to locate a specific Little Sister."

"A Little Sister?" Steinman looked troubled and the fire in his eyes died down.

"The Goddess just said you were to guide me."

"Yes, yes." Steinman's eyes lit up again. Seemed that the man's delusion could only be pushed so far.

"What can you tell me about the Little Sisters? I'm sure someone of your stature would know a great deal." Booker asked.

Feeding his ego a little as well as his insanity. Steinman noticed several people coming up the corridor towards them. "This may take some time. Let us pursue this discussion in more amiable surroundings."

They followed Steinman back he had come, the doctor humming as he walked. A Big Daddy stomped after a blond haired Little Sister in the tunnel to their left. It looked like the tunnel just went around in a circle. She sometimes wondered about the sanity of Rapture's architects.

They passed through a large room with pumps and two balconies on the floor at least thirty foot off the floor. Next they passed under a neon sign that said "Surgery".

*He better not think he's going to do surgery on me.*

*I don't think he would want to disturb your "near perfection".* she told him jokingly.

They took a left and down a long corridor. They didn't go far before Steinman took a left through the door first door they came to and entered an office.

"Dr. Steinman." a nasal voiced woman called at him. "You're next appointment called and said he would be late."

"Judith, call him back and reschedule and tell him not to be late next time. Please make sure I'm not disturbed."

Next they entered a luxurious wood paneled office. A single antique wood desk dominated the room. A high backed leather chair was behind the desk while two smaller wooden chairs sat in front. On the walls were diplomas, medical degrees, awards along with a few old pictures from the surface. One of them looked to be of Steinman's parents. On a bulletin board next to the desk were photographs of what seemed to be Steinman's patients. Notes that saying things "You can do better", "Not right!" and ideas on how to improve his work were tacked next to the pictures. Steinman went to sit behind the desk after Booker a drink, which he politely refused.

Steinman sipped the bourbon he had poured himself, she suspected that it wasn't a brand made in Rapture and started talking.

"I wasn't involved in the creation of the Little Sisters, but I have spoken to Tenenbaum about them. They are Wonders." Steinman smiled. "If they are injured, they heal nearly instantly. The dead cells being replaced by stem versions a phenomenal rate. Their only real vulnerability is if the slug is removed. The breaking of the symbiotic relationship between the slug and the Little Sister leads to the Little Sister's death."

'Removing the slug will kill Anna?' She thought that the Slugs altered the girls so she became a Little Sister, not that she was dependent on the slug to stay alive!

"Of course their production of ADAM is the greatest wonder of all."

"The ability to mold and change what we are has been given to us through ADAM. To become beautiful, perfect." Steinman stopped a moment while drifted away a look of bliss on his face. Then he looked back at Booker with a sympathetic expression. "The Goddess has given you a difficult task to full fill my friend."

"The Goddess is not easy to please, but we must try." Booker told him. She knew she should be upset by Booker manipulating Steinman, but this was the best, Only, lead they have gotten. Not to forget Steinman didn't seem to have any problem with turning little girls into ADAM factories.

"From what I was told by Tenenbaum, all records of who the Little Sister were is erased. They are identified only by numbers once they become part of the program. She told me that it was easier to deal with them that way, as numbers."

Reducing little girls to numbers. These people outdo Fink when it comes to dehumanizing.

"And the treatments they undergo are supposed to remove their memories." *At least we know *that* isn't totally true.* "So even the Little Sisters themselves can't tell you who they were."

"Going to the "Little Wonders" looking for information will do no good then." Booker asked.

"No, I don't believe so."

"Is there any place were Little Sister may go frequently? Say where they extract ADAM?"

Steinman thought a moment. "I've never heard of such a place, though one could exist. It would be certainly be highly fortified. But the Little Sisters would not need to go there often. They only get full of ADAM once every one or two weeks."

That were getting good information, but it wasn't helping! Need another angle. *Tenenbaum.*

"What about Tenenbaum? Might she have more information?"

Steinman tapped one of fingers against the glass he was holding. "I have heard that some people say that Tenebaum is dead, but I cannot make myself believe it. She survived the Nazi Death Camps you know. But I expect finding her to be difficult." Steinman leaned forward. "So tell me, why is the Goddess interested in this Little Sister?"

"The Goddess did not explain why, just what I needed to do." Booker told him. She was worried that Steinman may be starting to get suspicious. "She did say that you would be rewarded for your help."

Steinman's eyes flared. "Rewarded? How would the Goddess reward me? Would she let me see her?"

"She said that one day she would enlighten you. But you must keep up your work until that time."

"I shall! Is there anything more I can do to assist you in your quest?" The look in Steinman's eyes was going from fanaticism towards insanity.

*Booker, I think it's time to go. I don't think we can learn anything more and Steinman is a lot more unstable than what he seemed.*

"No." Booker told Steinman. "You were just to act as a guide, nothing more."

"But…"

"She said that you were only to be a guide. I think it would, displease the Goddess if you…"

"Yes, Yes, of course. I understand. My apologies." He seemed genuinely sorry. "It's just the first time that I have met a fellow believer in the in the Goddess. It has been…difficult at times."

"I must continue my quest now." Booker announced as he stood.

"I understand." Steinman got up from behind his desk and offered Booker his hand. Without hesitation Booker shook it. "I wish you well Mr… I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"Boston, Robert Boston."

"I wish you luck Mr. Boston. And may you gain the Goddess's favor with you quest."

"Thank you, Doctor. And may you gain Her favor as well. Good day."

They left Steinman's office and were in the outer area when Steinman yelled. "Judith! Bring me the file for Margaret Lepraunch! "

"Glad to be out of there." Booker muttered as he headed away from Steinman's offices. A nurse led an elderly woman past them towards surgery.

*I'm surprised Steinman is able to function so well. And I didn't see any ADAM scars on him.*

"Probably fixes them, does seem to be his specialty."

*Was it a good idea to feed Steinman's delusions?*

"Probably not." Booker paused a moment at the Circus of Values outside of surgery. "But, don't see how "attaining perfection" is going to hurt anybody." He made a dissatisfied sound as he looked over the machine's product list.

*Looking for something?*

"No EVE jars. The price for 'em on Prosperity is double what it was down below."

*The price in double what it was in Fontaine's? You think they stopped production?*

They turned away from the machine, Booker not bothering to Bypass it. "Seems likely." They watched as two more people were led towards surgery.

*So what about this symbiont thing?*

*A symbiotic rela…*

*Know what a symbiotic relationship is. What problems might this cause with finding Anna?*

She thought a moment on that. *I don't think it changes much, if anything. Once we find her though, I'm not sure what will happen. This symbiotic relationship between the Little Sisters and Slugs is certainly what makes it so difficult to cure the Little Sisters.*

*But there will be a cure. You said so.*

*I know, I saw Sally outside the Lighthouse looking normal, so there is a cure, or will be. You're avoiding the real problem.*

He sighed. *I know. There's no easy way to find Anna. We're going to have to search the entire city to find her.*

*That could take weeks, no months to do.*

*Guess there's no time like the present to start.*

End Chapter 28


	29. Chapter 29

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 29

-Elizabeth-

The long foot search of Rapture for Anna started in the Medical Pavilion. Of course in many ways "search" was a misnomer. She and Booker couldn't actually look for Anna among all the Little Sisters. They had to wait for the Little Sisters to exit a vent to search for a corpse to harvest.

'What a way to spend the day.'

As they waited Booker located a Circus of Values and an El Ammo Bandito. He Bypassed them both to make a few purchases. They got the last jar of EVE and ten more rounds of .45 antipersonnel ammo, all that it had. Evidently special types of ammunition were in short supply.

They choose a spot away from the other people, but where they could watch what was going on and not far from the Little Sister Vent near the entrance. "Think I'm going to carry fewer of these EVE jars, maybe just one." He was speaking low, probably hardly moving his mouth. 'All part of the show.'

*Is that wise?*

"Can carry another weapon. And it's kinda hard for me to get out a jar in the middle of a fight."

*When it comes to fighting you're the expert, but please be careful. I'm not in any state to help keep you alive.*

Someone started singing. It was badly off key and she couldn't make out the words very well. Somehow she knew it was a splicer.

"I will. Be easier if we could find some more Infusions. Where might they sell 'em?"

*Hum, no idea. That's if they're still for sale. For most people, Infusions are immediately lethal.*

"Would put a damper on sales. Guess we can ask at the pharmacy on Prosperity about them."

*Aren't you worried they'll throw you out?*

"Have to buy makeup don't I? That should make 'em happy." Knew he'd come around.

Booker had been keeping a watch on a woman in a black dress across the room. She was maybe forty five years old. She might have been good looking except for the ADAM scar, no, Growth, that had swallowed her left eye. Here for a funeral? She was dressed for one, but she seemed oddly happy. She kept on playing with the oversized and overstuffed purse she had on her lap.

*Booker, why are you watching that woman in black?*

He scratched his face a moment. "Bad feeling. Gut telling me something really wrong with her."

*You put a lot of trust in your gut.*

"Always listen to your gut. Just don't let it make up your mind for you."

Then they noticed the sound of heavy footsteps, slowly getting louder. A Big Daddy was approaching. Booker stood up and walked to a rack of brochures, picked up and pretended to read one while he watched the Little Sister Vent.

After a few moments they could see two yellow lights moving inside the vent. A Little Sister's eyes.

*She's waiting.*

"You mean waiting for a Big Daddy to come by."

*Yes. But why only come out for a Big Daddy?*

"Huh, no idea."

The Big Daddy, a Bouncer stomped up to the Vent and pounded on it with his armored left hand. Moments later the Little Sister climbed out. She wore a battered red and white dress and was barefoot. But like the other Little Sisters they had seen, she was lost in another world.

*Can't be visual, anyone could dress up in a suit. And the pounding is just an indication that the Big Daddy is prepared to escort the Little Sister. Has to be something else.*

"Good Morning Mr. Bubbles! Let's go find some angels." The Little Sister said in her strange voice.

"There's that sound they make. And the smell."

*Smell? That's right, they Do smell.* With everything else that had been going on just before she died, she really hadn't noticed the smell much. She recreated Suchong's Lab with the two Little Sisters and the injured Bouncer in her mind, but didn't pay attention to what she saw. She just wanted to remember the smell.

Now she wished she could forget it again. It was a terrible. Smell wasn't the right word. Stench was a better term. She had never smelled anything like it before.

*Have you ever smelled anything like that…smell?*

"No, can't say I'm sad about it either."

*The Big Daddies, they all smelled the same, right?*

Booker thought a moment. "Yeah, they do. You think that's what attracts the Little Sisters?"

The Little Sister wandered off to perform her "duties" with the Bouncer following behind.

*It's likely a major component of the imprinting. I doubt that the "perfume" the Big Daddies wear is something you can buy in a store. Probably something Suchong cooked up while he trying to figure out imprinting.*

"Humph. One step forward…"

*One step back.* 'We're getting information, but nothing that will help us find Anna.'

A man in a somber suit walked from the Affordable Endings Funeral Home over to woman Booker had been watching. He seemed to speak to her in a comforting manner and the both started to walk to Funeral Home.

"Think there are any other Little Sisters here?"

*I don't think there would be. It's a relatively small area.*

"No reason to stay here then."

They started walking back to the Medical Pavilion's entrance. *Since we're nearby, we might as well check the Welcome Center.*

"Guess we get to do some sightseeing after all."

That's when they heard people yelling in panic, not close by. Sounded like it was coming from Affordable Endings. One voice rose above the rest, a woman's voice, but it wasn't at all panicked, it was joyous.

"I'm coming Harold! I'm coming!"

Then came an explosion that shook the building.

They turned to see a cloud of smoke and dust erupt out of the corridor that led to Affordable Endings. Booker dashed through the cloud to doors. They were jammed partially open, but refused to open any farther to let them pass no matter how much Booker strained.

She was dimly aware that most the people around them where leaving, watching or just ignoring the situation. No one tried to help.

"Dammit." Booker swore. The cloud of dust and smoke settled some and they could see that the entire corridor was filled with broken concrete and twisted metal. No hope of any survivors in that. A battered First Aid Kit lay in front of the rubble as if to mock any attempt at rescue.

Booker stopped trying to pry the doors apart. "No use." he said softly.

*We better get out of here in case Rapture Security shows up.*

"Yeah, best be well shut of this place." Booker dusted himself off walked towards the exit without looking back.

Five minutes later they were back in the Welcome Center. Booker spent a few minutes cleaning himself up in the restroom inside the Transit Hub and then went up the stairs towards the Footlight Theater. As before, people where passing through the area to Neptune's Bounty. One of them in a fancy suit was complaining loudly that it took forever to get a taxi and he was going to the Mayor to complain about it.

They were on the upper level when there was yelling in the Hub below them.

Two splicers were shoving and punching each other. Before the pair of constables could intervene, one of the splicers, a man in a vest and suspenders pulled a pistol and started shooting. The other splicer, a woman in heavy grey overalls opened her mouth and exhaled fire like she was some sort of dragon.

As the two splicers fought, everyone nearby attempted to get out of the line of fire. They didn't panic though. A few even pulled their own weapons or activated Plasmids, ready to defend themselves. A Spider Splicer jumped from the floor to the ceiling and hung there to watch the fight. Booker didn't take cover and just stood near the banister to watch.

*Are you sure it's a good idea to just stand here?*

*Shield can take a few hits and best to see how these people fight.*

The male splicer had been set on fire by the woman's flaming breath. He danced around a moment trying to beat out the flames then he stood still and shot at the woman, hitting her twice before running out of ammo. With a scream of pure hate, the woman charged at the burning splicer, a club in her hand.

She never made it. Suddenly she was encased in a thick coating of ice shot from the hand of one of the constables. That must be the Winter Blast Plasmid. Bit different from Old Man Winter.

The other constable opened fire with a shotgun hitting the burning splicer twice before he fell. The first constable walked up to the slicer encased in ice and started hitting the ice with his Billy Club, a savage grin on his face.

*What's he doing?* Booker woundered.

*Trying to shatter the ice. When it breaks, the person inside breaks as well.*

*Clarice never did that.*

The ice holding the female splicer shattered leaving a pile of ice and nothing that could be recognized as a dead body.

*Clarice was powerful enough to freeze a person solid and kill them instantly.*

With both the splicers dead, the constable with the shotgun started to reload and yelled "All right! Shows over, on your way!"

People put guns away and continued on to their destinations, making sure to keep a "respectful" distance from Ryan's enforcers of course. The spliced cop, his left hand still appearing frozen, grabbed a man in work clothes and said something to him. They were too far away to hear what was said, but she suspected that he was giving orders. At one point the constable moved as if he might strike the man. Quickly the man did what he was ordered and dragged the body of the male splicer off to one side.

_The Parasite hates three things: free markets, free will, and free men._

Satisfied, the spliced cop motioned that worker that he could leave.

"Humph, I'm sure that's going to make him more respectful of Ryan."

*If he didn't support Atlas before, he probably does now.* she agreed.

Booker moved away from the banister, but moved to lean against the wall.

*Aren't we going to look around the Welcome Center?*

"Let's wait here a little. Got a dead splicer down there."

*A Little Sister should be attracted if she is nearby.* Using a corpse as "bait" for a Little Sister. What else might they have to do to find Anna? *So what is you "professional opinion" of that fight.*

"Unpredictable in a bad way." He sounded a little grim.

*Huh. The best swordsman in the world doesn't fear the second best swordsman, he fears the worst...*

"One way to put it. Hard to figure out what these splicers will do. Also don't like that it took two hits from a shotgun at close range to put that one down and after he was set on fire. Splicers up here seem tougher than them below."

*You saw what was in the Gather's Garden. The Armored Shell Tonic, health boost's and probably things we haven't seen yet. Makes them stronger and more resistant to injury.*

A woman in a torn green dress walked past looking about frantically. "Spiders, They're everywhere. Have to watch out. The spiders…"

Booker was quite for several minutes and seemed to be thinking. "What happened with Comstock fighting one of those Frosty splicers?"

*They weren't trying to freeze Comstock or me. I don't know why. They just threw out pieces of ice that hurt a lot and made it hard to move because of the cold.*

"Humph. Tryin' to figure out what to do if I got froze like that lady down there."

*Well, I expect that your Shield would keep the ice from coming in direct contact with your skin. That might give you a little leverage to break it.*

"Has to be something better." Booker grumbled.

*Melting would be best of course. Since its frozen carbon dioxide, you don't have to worry about water. Too bad you can only set your left hand on fire with the Devil's Kiss.* *Wait, the Firemen…*

"They could make fire appear all around them. And those Houdini Splicers throw fireballs with both hands." He held up his right hand and made small flames on each of his fingers before quickly extinguishing them.

*Why didn't we know we could use Plasmids with both hands before this?*

"Never read the instructions?"

*Booker, I'm serious.*

"So am I. We never had a chance to practice with these things or even learn much about 'em. Just started using them."

*That's true, but Comstock should have known.*

"He left it all to Fink."

*I mean the one down here.*

"If he was pretending to be me from before, probably didn't bother to find out anything."

*So we should actually go find an instruction manual for Plasmids?* That sounded too easy.

"Don't think it would hurt."

*And if they don't have an instruction manuals?*

"Least we might come up with a few better ways to use them."

They spent the next ten minutes thinking of different ways they could use the Plasmids. Unfortunately they really couldn't try out any of their ideas standing in a well-traveled corridor. Then they heard the heavy footsteps of a Big Daddy. The Big Daddy and a Little Sister with dark hair and a dirty white and pink dress came down the corridor from the direction of the Footlight Theater. It wasn't Anna.

She buried any feelings of disappointment. Finding Anna was likely to take a long time and if she allowed herself to be disappointed every time they found a Little Sister that wasn't Anna, she would soon be a wreck. She had tried for years to escape her Tower, waiting a few weeks or even months was something she could deal with. Even if they had to wait for Jack to arrive, Anna would be saved.

The girl was skipping along seeming to be enjoy herself as people flattened themselves against the walls or headed back to the Transit Hub to avoid getting too close to the Bouncer. One person didn't move fast enough and the Bouncer knocked her aside with a sweep of the Drill Arm. The impact left cracks in the wall, but the woman picked herself up after a few moments and gave the Bouncer an angry glare before walking away.

The impact probably would have cracked the ribs of a normal person, if not shattered them.

Then the Little Sister stopped a moment. "I can smell an angel. It's close!" With that she nearly ran down the stairs to the floor below.

*Let's get going Booker.* Knowing that she was drinking blood to extract ADAM was harder to deal with having to wait to find Anna.

-Booker-

No need for either of them to see a Little Sister doing her "work" again. He turned back down the corridor that led to the Footlight Theater and to the elevators. When they got to the bottom floor they left the elevator and made their way down the stairs at the far end of the room. At the bottom of the stairs was a waiting area, but a group of workmen had taken over the right side and were installing a large piece of equipment.

*Another Vita-Chamber? Why would they…? There's something I'm forgetting.*

Elizabeth didn't speak for a moment. She stood and looked at the Vita-Chamber, thinking. He hoped she wasn't overdoing it. Going to have to figure out a way to tactfully tell her slow down a little. She was only five years old, even if she remembers being older. He scratched his face as he went over to stand on the other side of the waiting area and looked out the window.

There were three people other people there. The two men were sitting down while the woman paced back and forth. None of them seemed happy.

*There was a blackboard in Suchong's lab near one of these Vita-Chambers. It mentioned the mass production models being tuned to Andrew Ryan's genetics before being distributed.* Really hated that at times. Elizabeth will be off in one place then suddenly appear at his elbow when she talked. He just hoped that he didn't start believing she was real before they found Anna.

*Guess if these things can bring someone back to life, Ryan's planning on keeping it for himself.*

*No great surprise there.*

He turned and walked to the next door. Just before the Securis door opened he though he heard one of the men say "Good luck buddy." in a sarcastic tone.

The door rumbled opened up to one the glass tunnels and they stepped into it. The door closed behind him and he looked around a moment. The tunnel ahead met up with another tunnel ahead then took a sharp turn to the left. His eye's followed it and saw it connected with another building with large windows.

*It's starting to look familiar.* Elizabeth said with sadness in her voice. Probably remembering Songbird.

They headed down the tunnel and shortly were back in the room where the younger (older?) versions of themselves arrived next year. Both stairways were intact and no fires. Even the huge sign advertising Plasmids was undamaged. What really made it seem different was that there were people milling around in here and none of them seemed happy.

*Looks in a lot better shape.*

*Well it should. Whatever caused all the destruction here hasn't happened yet.*

*Let's hope we miss out on that. Wonder why all the people?*

*It is a fairly popular station.*

*No, something's going on.* There was tension in the air, not directed at him for once, but still there. *Think we should take a look down by the spheres.*

They headed for the stairs that led down only to find them blocked off at the bottom. A sign said "Temporarily Out Of Order." Another said "Men Working." They looked around a moment and spotted someone in work clothes pretending to do some work.

Booker made his voice a little higher and put a little self-importance into it. "Hey! Hey, Buddy! Comer' a minute."

The man walked closer, but stopped ten feet away and crossed his arms. "Hey, can't ya see I'm working here?"

"Hey, I just wanna know when the station going to be open? I got business to do!"

The man's voice filled with irritation. "It'll be open in an hour or so. Be open faster if people wouldn't be botherin' me!"

"All right, all right. Just try to find out what's going on."

They turned around and headed back up the stairs. "If that guy is a workman, I'm the King of England."

Elizabeth standing at the top of the stairs, putting on a not overly serious thinking pose. *You do know that someplace there is alternate version of you that actually is the King of England.*

"Not really important at the moment." He told her just before they got to the top of the stairs.

*Guess not.* she said with a smile. *But you're right, he isn't a workman. I'm thinking Ryan Security. Something is definitely going on.*

"Hey fella!" a woman called. "They say when it's going to be running again?" Most of the people turned to look at him.

"Said it'd be an hour or so."

A man in a fancy black suit, a red flower in his lapel and a bulging ADAM scar on his neck complained "They said that an hour ago!"

"That's what he said." he told the group. One man kept frantically look watch as if it would make the time go faster.

Booker started heading for the Securis door and the tunnel out as woman in a low cut dress called out to him. "Hey handsome! I know a way to make the hour go faster!" The woman next to her rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, got business." he told her.

*Some women.* Elizabeth grumbled. *It's a surprise you could get any detective work done. You seem to get peoples attention.*

*Yeah, does make it difficult at times. Not like I can change my looks.*

They walked out through the Securis door and into the tunnel. But a man followed him out and a woman in coveralls was walking the tunnel in their direction.

*There is a little something we can do besides a mask. Since a beard is out of the question, how do you think you would look with a mustache?*

*You could actually help me make a realistic looking fake mustache?*

The woman in the coveralls was closer now. She had a massive ADAM scar on the right side of her face, carried a rose in her right hand and had hooks used by Spider Splicers hanging from her belt. She seemed sad, but had the air of growing madness about her. He kept his hand near his pistol.

*Well, no. But you should be able buy one. There are a lot of actors in Rapture. Wigs, false beards, hair coloring and even padding to make you look fat are available down here. We just have to find a store that sells it. Should be a few places near Fort Frolic.*

He looked at his watch a moment. Should be time for a little side exploration. *Want to see where that tunnel on the left goes?*

*Yeah, be a good idea to see what's down there. That way we don't have to come back again.*

They took the tunnel to the left and avoided several puddles of water before them got to the next structure. After passing through the Securis door and down a short corridor they found saw a green sign with white lettering that said "Bounty Square".

"Ever hear of it?" He went to scratch his face, but stopped himself in time.

*No, but Rapture's a big place.*

They walked out into a large open area three stories tall with a skylight at the top. They could see nearly a dozen people moving about, most of them in business clothes. In the center of the open area was a Central Square Bistro, to the right was a Thrifty Care and an wide corridor that apparently took one to Zeus Apartments. Taking up the entire left side of the square was Rights Hardware and Electronics. Large planters filled with slowly dying plants where along the walls and near the entrance to the Bistro.

*If we ever need parts to fix the Air Grabber we know where to get them now.* Elizabeth noted.

Just to the right were three elevators, but one was out of order and the others didn't look overly reliable. On the far side were a small Jet Postal Station and a wide flight of stairs leading up to the next floor. Signs indicated Rapture Records, Esquire Literature and Crandall Industrial Design were on the Second Floor and the Third Floor held Time Accounting and Rapture Orientation. The Rapture Orientation sign was a different style and looked older compared to the other ones.

"Found another bookstore."

*Maybe this one will be open.*

"Want to take a look around down here first." They headed of towards the hardware store. The large glass windows had a few bullet holes in them, but otherwise looked undamaged. They didn't go in, but were able to see that it was still decently stocked through the windows.

A man in a walked past saying "It's not my fault, it's not my fault..."

"Should be able to pick up parts to make a couple of Auto Hacks in there."

*Wait, is that a sign advertising guns on the back wall?*

"Hardware and general stores selling guns isn't new. Rather common out west actually. No guarantee on the quality though."

*Guess it makes sense. I just expected guns to be sold more at gunsmiths and sports stores.*

"Someone wants a gun, somebody's going to try and make money selling one to 'em."

They continued on to the Jet Postal but there didn't seem to be much activity. A slight shudder ran through the building, the echo of a distant explosion, but no one seemed to notice or care. There was a Circus of Values machine and a pair of newspaper machines on the backside of the Bistro. Those could wait.

_Rumor is the tool of the Parasite. Fontaine is dead; Rapture lives._

On the floor besides a planter was an Audio Diary. He went to pick it up and a man screamed "DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

He stood up and looked to see a dirty looking man in ragged clothes racing down the stairs. "That's Mine! You can't have it!"

Best to back off. "Sorry fella, thought someone lost it." he told the man as he backed up a couple of steps.

"Get out of my home! This is mine! Mine!" the man yelled and brandished a club, but didn't move to attack.

Not worth a fight so he backed off further. The ragged man went to stand by the Audio Diary and he said he was sorry then started to cry.

*He doesn't have any ADAM scars, he must have some sort of mental illness.*

"Doesn't take ADAM to make you crazy."

They walked past the stairway leading up and towards the tunnel that led to Zeus Apartments. Before they got there they heard a familiar sound. A Security Camera.

*Damn. Rather not chance it.*

*Yes, the last thing we want is Ryan seeing you.*

"Guess we can look around here for a little while before heading back."

They turned and head in the general direction of the Bistro and the Circus of Values. Nearby were some newspaper machines. Once they got closer they could see that one from them was from the Rapture Daily Post and the other from Do Tell!. He bypassed the Circus machine and bought a copy of Do Tell! before they walked to the stairs leading to the floor above.

*I think we should start with the top floor and work our way down.*

"Any particular reason?"

*That "Rapture Orientation" sign made me a little curious.*

"Have to say the same. Let's go see what this Rapture Orientation is."

End Chapter 29


	30. Chapter 30

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 30

-Booker-

As they walked up to the third floor Booker looked through the newspaper and wished he had bought the Rapture Post. "Do Tell!" was Yellow Journalism at its worst. Nothing but overblown headlines and blind support for Ryan.

*This paper isn't even well written propaganda.* Elizabeth complained as they neared the second floor. *Of course I doubt the splicers notice.*

He scratched his face a moment before forcing his hand down. "Humph. Lot of papers were like this. Big flashy headlines meant to sell the most papers."

*And they skimped on the content I take it.*

"Mostly scandal or crime stories. Had to dodge reporters after Anna was taken. Better than this though."

They looked around a moment. Esquire Literature was still open as was Rapture Records. Didn't look like many people were in either store. Crandall and Sons Industrial Design was mostly dark with its windows smashed in and everything in the place torn apart. Someone had tacked up a "Who is Atlas" poster and someone else had painted "Bandit" over it.

*I wonder what happened there. Most of this place is almost untouched.*

"Targeted for some reason maybe?"

The building shudder slightly again as a splicer in a fish mask and mismatched shoes walked past them going downstairs.

On the top floor Timely Accounting was open and they could see a few people working through the windows, but not as many. On the opposite side was sealed off with a wood fence like those you would see around a construction site. There certainly wasn't any work going on now and likely hadn't been for some time.

"Not much to look at."

*Don't think we're going to learn anything here.*

He put the newspaper down on a small bench near the stairs and noticed an Audio Diary leaning on a nearby ashtray. The man's voice was high and slightly nasal.

_Gary Larkin: Plans_

_Date: Feb 09, 1959_

_Rapture's gone busto, but I'm not going to die down here. Stocking supplies away, see. Food, money, the technical manuals. While Ryan and Atlas are busy killing each other, I'm gonna sneak out and get back up top. Those manuals will be worth a mint up there. Gotta to be careful. If that bitch Eidith and her new boy toy find out about this? She'd off me and take everything. Going to hide everything in the old Orientation Center. She'll never find it there. _

"Technical Manuals?"

*Instruction and specifications for equipment. If you have those, with a little work someone could figure out to how to copy some Rapture's technology.*

"Like those Security Bots."

*Possibly. It depends on what he has. It could be Security Bots, Vending Machines or even a bathysphere.*

"Not sure if I would lose anything from Rapture on the world."

*Not everything in Rapture is uses ADAM.*

"No, but could you imagine someone building thousands of those Security Bots and sending them to fight?"

*Slates "Tin Men" he hated so much. I had another idea though. With the right manuals we should be able to figure out how to reprogram, well hack, the security systems.*

"Make it work for us rather than just bypass it?" Sounded interesting.

*Yes, that Bypass Plasmid will make easy to get close to hack them.*

"Guess that Ryoich was right to be worried."

_Wanting an item from the surface is forgivable. Buying or smuggling one into Rapture is not. Stay on the level, and out of trouble. _

The fence hadn't been made that well and it was easy to find a gap to look through. Across an open space was a wide stone archway with "RAPTURE The Salvation of Humanity" carved into it. Beyond were two sets of doorways. The place had been abandoned for some time though and someone had started to strip the place. Two of the doors were missing along with half the light fixtures along the walls. He suspected that some of the planters had been taken as well. The planters that remained only held dead leaves.

He stepped back a little and noticed a gate further down the fence, but there was a large padlock on it. They walked over and looked at it a moment.

*This locks been used recently, but they had trouble getting the key into the lock. Can you turn it to the right a little? The scratches are recent, probably within the past few weeks.*

"With everything that's going on, why would some be going in there?" 'Here it comes.'

*Be easier to find out if you…*

"knew how to pick locks."

*Saying it a little too often?* she sounded slightly embarrassed.

"Hm, maybe. Fortunately, can get the other side without picking the lock." He told her as he backed up.

*You're going to climb over it?*

"Not quite." He looked around to see that no one was watching and ran right at the fence, jumped, grabbed the top and swung up and over to land on the other side.

*How did you do that?*

"Have a lot of practice getting over fences quickly."

*Chasing after people?* Curious as ever.

"More like being … some other time." 'Shouldn't have said anything.'

They walked over to the gate in the fence to look at the floor. This area hadn't been cleaned in years and there was a good amount of dust and dirt on the floor. A few ceiling tiles had fallen and there were a couple of small puddles of water.

He looked closely at the floor. Three different shoe tracks, two were men's, the third was a woman's high heeled shoes.

*Lot of traffic for a place that supposed to be abandoned.*

"Something wrong here. That track with the bad right heal?"

*I see it. It comes in three times and leaves only twice.*

*How old were those scratches?*

*I can't tell for sure, two weeks maybe?*

"Probably 'bout the time the last track with the bad heal and the others came through." He scratched his face a moment.

*You think the guy with bad heal on his shoe didn't leave and never will.*

"Doubt he's been living in here since then." he said as he drew his autopistol. "But you never know."

They followed the tracks through the arch and empty doorway. Not many lights working here, so he lit up the Devil's Kiss.

*I'll make sure to remind you to get a flashlight at the hardware store.*

They were in a corridor that stretched off to the right some distance before taking a turn. On the walls were pictures and paintings depicting Rapture as it was being built. Men struggling to work deep underwater, artists carving statues and architects hard at work at their draft boards. Empty spaces testified to having been many others.

*There is no way Rapture's construction was really that clean and neat.*

"More propaganda. Must be a constant with cities like this." Less dust in there, and while the Devil's Kiss gave them more light, wasn't good enough to clearly make out the tracks. He looked up to see Art Deco chandeliers hanging from the ceiling nearly twenty feet above. No way to turn them on that he could see. They slowly headed down the corridor to a wide set of doors with a sign above them stating "Welcome to Rapture" and "Orientation".

*We might was well see what's in there*

He doused the flame on his hand and opened one of the doors. It was pitch black, but after a moment the lights slowly flickered to life.

*Must be some sort of automated system.* Elizabeth said as they looked around the room.

The room turned out to be a small theater maybe seating fifty people. There was a small projection booth at the back and a podium besides the large screen on stage. A quick survey of the room revealed that there was nothing of use.

*Little bit of cleaning and you could still use all this.*

"Sure Ryan will send someone right along."

*Well, it's a waste. This could easily have been repurposed into something useful.*

"Out of sight, out of mind. Lots'a things get forgotten that way, even people."

*Well, somebody didn't forget about this place.*

"Best to be finding out about that."

They left the theater and proceeded down the corridor and came across a map of the city. In the upper left corner it said "Welcome to your new life in Rapture"

"Not much detail." he said disappointedly.

*Haven't seen any other maps that had more detail.*

"Guess Ryan doesn't mind people getting lost."

Just the other side of the map was a set of door with "Rapture Immigration and Naturalization Authority" painted on them. Below that was a tattered paper sign.

CLOSED

The Rapture Immigration and Naturalization Authority

has been mov

The rest of the sign had been torn off.

He opened the door and looked inside, Elizabeth taking a few steps in before stopping. The room was about forty by fifty feet and totally empty. Not a stick of furniture or even trash remained and the only light came in through the windows.

*Guess it's on to the next.*

"Thought they would have a bigger place to handle people coming to Rapture."

*That might be why they had to move it. There are thousands of people in Rapture. Way too many to be processed through here.*

They continued down the hallway passing several empty offices, interview rooms and what looked to be a jail cell.

*Ryan's always been nervous about the outside world finding Rapture. Probably had this here in case they discovered a spy.*

"Doesn't want anyone intruding on his "perfect world" he built." No big surprise there. Comstock was the same way.

They reached the bend in the hallway and turned the corner. About six feet from the corner were a set of plain wooden double doors with "Employees Only" signs on them.

The corridor on the other side of the doors was very businesslike. No artwork on the pale walls, plain white tiles on the ceiling. Even the linoleum tile floor lacked any sort of pattern. About twenty crates were in the hallway along with chairs, filing cabinets and even a desk. Looked like people had been packing things up when it was decided to just leave everything. There was the smell of death here as well.

"Guess no one wanted all this."

*Probably because it didn't fit in with the rest of Rapture's Art Deco décor.*

They could see offices labeled "Scheduling", "Shipping", "Disbursements" and "Intakes" among others. Looked like some of the paperwork work for building Rapture was done here. In one room they found a chart showing the different routes that ships would take from New York, Liverpool, Brisbane, Philadelphia and other major ports to get to Rapture. Some had taken paths quite far out of their way to hide the cities location.

"Hadn't realized how far this place is from everything."

*You didn't know where we are?* she was a little surprised.

"Never saw any maps before this. Going to make it harder to get out of here. You remember anything 'bout that?"

*No, just Jack and a sphere outside the Lighthouse. It was a nice sunny day.* She really seemed to enjoy remembering how sunny it was. Almost like she had been there.

"Doubt those spheres are going to make it to…" he looked more closely at the map "Iceland."

*I guess we'll have to call for help. If we can get a radio to the surface we should be able to contact someone.*

"Rather get out of here without the rest of the world knowing about ADAM."

*You have a point there. We have enough time to think of something.* she said as he walked to the next room labeled "Communications." Unlike the rest of the rooms which had plain wood doors, this one was reinforced steel. But it opened easily with a push of his hand.

Looked like this was a security checkpoint. A window with heavy glass and a slot to pass papers through and another heavy steel door beside it. Looking beyond the window all he saw were tables, chairs and a few wires.

*Could you look to the left a little.*

"Want to go in for a closer look?"

*Yes, they seem to have taken all the radio equipment, but I'm hoping they left the lines going up to surface.*

Booker tried the inner door and it opened easily. "Didn't bother to lock it."

*Why should they? Nothing here other than some old tables and chairs.*

They walked in room and Elizabeth directed him around. After a short time she thought she had it figured out. *I think there were at least three radios in here and some phones over on the right side.*

"All this security was to keep a spy from getting on a radio and revealing Rapture's location."

*But they still would have needed to talk to ships on the surface while the city was being built. There are probably a couple of other places similar to this one down here. Ryan would certainly keep track of things going on above.*

She had thought of something. "Why the interest?"

*This may be useful. The wires to the surface seem to be intact. The Lighthouse must have the aerials built into it. That means we could pick up radio signals from the outside and even send them. We don't dare to call for help until Ryan and Fontaine are dead, but it would be nice to know about what is happening outside.*

"So we can be a little prepared for when we leave."

*It could help.*

She's wanting to know about the outside world again. Good sign. "Think you just want to hear some new music."

*There's nothing wrong with that.* she said slightly defensively.

"Didn't say there was. Let's see what else is down here."

The next couple of rooms they looked at were empty or just had old office furniture in it. They did find a brass tube and two bottles of glue that hadn't dried out. Then they came up to the desk sitting in the hall and they could see a hand print on the dust. The smell of death had gotten stronger.

He looked down at the floor for a moment hoping that some tracks might be visible. More than tracks, drag marks that went to the next office. Some stains on the floor and a few more on the left wall about head high.

*Blood, right?*

"Yeah, looks like somebody got his face pushed into the wall, hard, then dragged over there." He looked to the next office. "Don't think you will want to see what's in there."

*I'm certain I've seen worse.*

He sighed sadly inside. 'Still too much like me.'

-Elizabeth-

He didn't try to argue. She wasn't quite sure if she should be happy about that or not.

Booker pushed open the door and stood back a moment as he covered his nose with a handkerchief. It must have smelled terrible. In the dim light they could see a person seated on chair in the center of the room.

Booker felt around the corner and turned on the light switch. Surprisingly a light over the figure in the chair came on. Not that it mattered much to the one in the chair as he clearly been dead for some time. The room had three desks and five other chairs in it. One of them directly in front of the chair with the dead man tied into it. Someone had taken their time beating the man, but she didn't think that was the cause of death. The blood on him and the floor testified that he had died from blood loss. Someone cut his throat.

She just made a sad sigh at the sight.

They stood in the doorway and looked around the room silently and spotted an Audio Diary sitting on a chair off to the left side of the corpse. Booker stepped carefully into the room making sure to avoid the dried blood. Guess he didn't want to track it around. Moments later he picked up the Audio Log. It started off with a woman's harsh voice.

_Gary Larkin: The Combination_

_Date: Feb 13, 1959_

_Woman's Voice: Gary, Gary, Gary. All you need to do is tell me the combination and this will all be over. No more pain. I only want whatever you put in that safe._

_Gary: He, you.. you think I'm stupid? (Cough) You ain't getting nothin' from me._

_Woman's Voice: Hit him again, Wilson. _

_*Sound of several blows hitting a person and gaps of pain*_

_Woman's Voice: Now, are you ready to talk? _

_Gary: Nevber. Goin' kill me (cough) anway..._

_Woman's Voice: Stupid little man! Wilson, finish him. I'll have to figure out another way into that safe. _

*Guess Gary was right to worry. I wonder where that safe is?*

"Must be further down. Thought I saw a sign that said Disbursements."

*And we don't need the combination to get into the safe.*

They spent a few moments looking around the rest of the room finding only a rubber hose and two more screws.

Just as they left the room the doors at the end of the hall were shoved open and two flashlight beams found Booker before he could duck back out of sight.

Retreating wouldn't do much good anyway. The only exit was the way they had come in.

Booker did take a half step back so that it was easy to duck back in the room and they couldn't see that he was armed.

Squinting against the glare they could make out two forms, a large burly man and in back of him a woman in a dress.

"Don't move or I'll kill ya!" the man snarled and both people started walking down the corridor towards Booker.

"No need to be rude Wilson." The woman's voice, it was the same as the one on the Audio Diary. That must be Edith.

Edith continued "I don't know who you are, but tell me what I want to know, and we can avoid unneeded unpleasantness."

"What do you want to know?" Booker asked.

"The combination to the safe." Right. If she got the combination she would still try and kill Booker.

"Sorry, don't know any safe combinations."

The pair were closer now and more details could be made out. The man wore a cheap grey suit and a kerchief covered the lower part of his face. His skin didn't look quite right somehow, maybe the Armored Shell Tonic? Or maybe ADAM sickness. But his eyes were what struck her the most. They glowed a familiar green color. In his right hand he carried a heavy revolver.

The woman had a fancy dress on with high heels. She might have been beautiful at one time, but now she looked harsh and scarred by greed and hate. She didn't carry anything other than the flashlight and a purse. On her right cheek and left forehead were glowing green crystals. Possession? She had no idea what Possession would do to Booker. His Shield might protect him, but what if it didn't?

"You're one of that little man's friends." she sneered "I know he told you the combination. Tell me what it is right now!"

"Don't know what..."

"Get him Wilson!" Edith screamed. "Make him tell me!"

"Yes Mistress!"

Harold charged at Booker, but only took two steps before being hit with Bucking Bronco. The woman was just far enough back that she kept both feet on the ground. Booker sprinted forward and used the Air Grabber to hit the man on the back of the head.

Wilson continued to thrash about in the air.

As they had feared. That should have knocked the splicer out, but it didn't. No choice but to kill him.

Booker slammed the Air Grabber into Wilson again knocking him back down the corridor, but it didn't do any good. "Dammit!"

"Wilson! Get him! That Is An Order!" the woman screeched.

The Bronco wore off and Wilson dropped to the floor only to scramble to his feet. Booker brought up the shotgun and fired twice into Wilson. But it didn't stop the possessed man and he fired back at Booker with the revolver. She knew his Shield absorbed it, but she didn't think it could take another hit like that.

In the background Edith was screaming orders at Wilson.

Booker fired once more and the splicer just seemed to soak up the damage. Booker took another hit and grunted in pain, then launched a Devil's Kiss bomb at Wilson which hit him dead on. The man died silently as the fiery explosion consumed him.

Booker took a moment to switch to his autopistol, Edith was too far away for effective use of the shotgun.

"You always were useless Wilson." She looked back to Booker a deranged grin on her face, "But I have a replacement."

As Booker pulled up, Edith unleashed a Possession Fairy at him. He snapped off a shot and ducked behind a short stack of crates as the fairy came at him. It hit the crates and fizzled in a cloud of green smoke. "Lucky." Booker muttered.

"Come Out HERE! You're mine! Everything! Is! MINE!"

Booker stood up holding the autopistol at arm's length to look through the telescopic sight. Before the splicer could fire off another Possession, he centered the cross hairs on her head and fired three times in quick succession.

"I sure as hell don't belong to you lady." Booker told her. He walked up to the woman and made sure she was dead before starting to reload.

*Well, THAT was creepy. It looks likes Wilson had been under the effects of Possession for a long time. I didn't think you could use Possession to turn someone into a slave like that.*

"Might have been doing him a favor." Booker said in a sad tone.

*Doing him a favor?*

"Killing him."

He might be right. Whatever Edith had done to Wilson probably wouldn't wear off. The ability of Possession control people long term was something she had never heard of, at least in Columbia. Must be something they developed in Rapture.

Booker looted the two corpses finding 82 dollars, an EVE syringe, a flask of brandy, a set of keys and four casing for heavy revolver rounds. He picked up one of the flashlights and took two batteries from the other one.

*Guess I don't need to remind you to get a flashlight anymore.*

"Why couldn't I knock that guy out? Know I hit him right."

*He was a splicer. Who knows what ADAM did to him.*

"Least the Parasite Gear works."

*What did it do?*

"As the guy at the pawn shop said, you get a *little* EVE. Better than nothing though." He looked down at the two bodies for a moment. "Might as well put these with the other one."

If they ever wanted to come back here, avoiding two dead bodies was an unneeded complication.

After the gristly work was done they resumed their search for the safe. As Booker predicted they found it in the office with the Disbursements sign. It was mounted on the back wall on the other side of a high counter. There were a dozen desks in the room and most of them had large adding machines still on them.

"Looks pretty standard for an accounting office." Booker said as he hopped the counter and walked to the safe.

*And what do you know about accounting.*

"Couple of me became accountants. Didn't want to have anything to do with violence anymore."

*You as an accountant?* The thought of Booker hunched over a desk with a little visor on his head writing in a huge ledger made her laugh.

He walked up to the safe. "Yes, an accountant. Actually they were rather good at it. Being alone didn't bother them."

She sobered quickly when she realized what he was really saying. *They didn't want to be around other people anymore.*

He signed as he got out one of the Auto Hacks. "No, they didn't. Just hid from everyone behind the numbers. Least what they knew helped me solve a couple of my cases."

*And how did accounting do that?*

"Important lesson for being a detective. Always look where the money goes."

*And being able to do accounting helps you follow the money.*

The Auto Hack tool did its job and the safe door cracked opened. "Most cases involve sex or greed."

*Such as this little misadventure.*

"Yeah, three people dead because of what's in this safe." Booker opened up the safe to reveal its contents. Gary had packed quite a lot in here. Ten cans of food, one bottle of aspirin, a Pep Bar, four heavy books that held technical schematics, two bars of gold and an Infusion.

After downing the Infusion took the aspirin and ate the Pep Bar. He was still chewing it as they started searching the rest of the room. As they searched the room started to fell vaguely familiar to her. Of course she had gotten that a lot recently. She was glad she wasn't getting flashes of the future. She had no idea how those would affect Anna.

Booker scratched his face a moment and went back to the safe and chose several cans of food. *Picking out something for lunch?*

"Dinner actually. Thought I would get lunch at the Bistro downstairs. Want to go to the bookstore when we're done here?"

*Might as well. Hope they have some decent books.*

They still had a few rooms to check and in a supply closet they found two more screws, another piece of brass tubing and two sections of rubber hose.

*If I remember correctly, we have everything we need to make our own Auto Hack tool.*

"Better if I get enough parts to make more. Don't think it would be good if we ran out."

*How many can you carry?*

"Suppose I could carry about five, but be a bit hard to move. Think four would be best."

*After the bookstore we can go to the hardware store.*

"Should be about time for your nap and lunch."

*Providing nothing else happens.*

"If nothing else happens."

End Chapter 30


	31. Chapter 31

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 31

-Elizabeth-

For once, nothing else bad happen. They left the Orientation Center, locking it up with the keys that Booker had taken from Edith's purse. There were a few more people about now and one man in a blue heron mask took more interest in Booker than either of them liked.

Fortunately, he didn't follow them down to the next floor and so they could see what was in Esquire Literature without someone following them. Booker kept a wary eye open anyway. Another shudder shook the building. Seemed closer this time, but it was hard to tell.

When they entered the bookstore a short balding man behind the counter greeted them warmly. Probably hoping they were going to buy something since there were only two other people in store. Booker asked for the History section and the man pointed to one side of the store near the back.

"Seemed a little surprised I asked about history." Booker muttered to her.

*I don't think people in Rapture care much about history unless they're the ones making it.*

They passed self-help books, then ones on physics and chemistry. She had read the good ones already so didn't bother Booker with looking at them. They also passed through a large section of so called "romance novels." When they got to the back of the store, she thought of something.

*Booker, do you see any children's books?* It felt a little odd planning for her own future education.

He looked around a moment. "No. Doesn't look to be the kind of place that caters to parents."

*Worth a try.* Booker took several moments to look over the meager selection. Most of the books were about the founding of Rapture, three of them purported themselves as being the "Official" version. He picked up one about world history and glanced through it. A quick glance showed it was heavily biased in favor of Ryan's personal philosophy. Booker put it back on the shelf.

A minute later he found one titled "Trials and Tribulations: The First Half of the Twentieth Century" by Edward Stranton. Booker looked through the first part of it for several minutes. Checking to see if the history he remembered matched this realities history.

*Notice any differences?* Now she wished she had read a little more history along with all the science.

"No, looks like things happened about the same. Constants I guess." He closed the book and stuck it under his arm and continued to look.

After a few minutes they didn't see anything else that looked worth buying. "Don't see anything on Plasmids. Anything else while we're here?"

*No, nothing I want to read right now. No, wait. Do you think they might have anything on the Sea Slugs?*

"Going to figure out how to cure Anna by yourself?" He didn't sound all that serious.

*I wish. I would probably need years of study to do that. But it would be nice to have some idea of what we're dealing with."

"Can't hurt." They spent twenty minutes looking through the racks of books, but the only thing they found was a book on deep sea life.

*Shouldn't be surprised. Ryan probably had any useful information on the slugs suppressed.*

Booker headed for the front of the store to pay for the book.

*Might end up paying a visit to a Little Wonders after all.* he said as he scratched his face.

*Huh. They Would have the information on how to care for the Little Sisters at the very least.*

*And doubt security would be so tight on that.*

Booker paid for the book and left the store. "Want to go over to Rapture Records?"

*Why would we go there?*

"Heard that a young lady put out a record with Sander Cohen. Supposed to be a pretty good singer."

*Mr. DeWitt, Don't You Dare.* She was going to have to figure out a way to get Anna to glare at him for her.

He chuckled. "Guess I won't get it then. Besides, like hearing things live."

*Humph! Keep acting like that and she might decide not to give any performances.*

They headed down the staircase and returned to the first floor. Booker made sure to keep his distance from the ragged man and the Audio Diary he guarded.

'I wonder.' *How much does Anna sing?*

"Not really up to singing yet. More interested in the guitar."

Next stop was the hardware store.

First, they looked in the rear of the store where they were selling guns and ammunition. Booker wasn't overly impressed with the remaining shotguns and pistols. The salesman said that the people had bought most of their better stock when the war started. They did pick up eight shotgun shell casing and six heavy revolver casings, so it wasn't a totally wasted trip.

They went to get batteries, but found they could only buy four at a time. A sign stated that it was to prevent hoarding. At the price that was being charged, she didn't think many people would be able to afford to buy enough to hoard them. They also got a length of rubber hose, two dozen screws and a couple pieces of brass tubing. Unfortunately they were out of Kerosene.

For electronic parts they had a surprisingly good selection. If you knew what you were doing you could easily build a radio transmitter. A sales clerk, mentioned there was a small but avid group of radio enthusiast in Rapture. She had no idea what they might be listening to other than Rapture Radio.

As they paid for everything, things started to get dark. Anna was taking her nap early today. She was likely still feeling some lingering effects of the drugs they had given her. Booker told her to sleep tight and that he would be heading back to the room after he ate.

…

As she started to wake, there were gun shots. Things faded in just as Booker fired his heavy revolver at someone with a machine gun. He ducked behind a wall and brought up Charge as he switched to his shotgun.

It took her a moment to realize where they were. It was the Rest Area where the Security Camera was being installed. She could see a least one body.

A red and black cloud formed ahead at their right. Booker seemed to have been expecting it. As soon as the Houdini Splicer finished teleporting, Booker slammed into him with the Vigor then followed up by unleashing the shotgun at point blank range, killing the splicer.

Booker wheeled around quickly to see another cloud form and the man with the tommy gun emerged from it. He fired a short bust which Booker's Shield barely withstood. Booker returned fire, hitting him.

The splicer vanished again and Booker switched back his revolver. For a several minutes Booker rapidly turned, trying to locate the Splicer when he teleported again, but there was no sign of him.

"Guess he's not coming back."

Booker relaxed and started reloading his revolver. *Booker what happened?*

*Oh, you're awake. Bandits. Real ones. Was walking back and stumbled into this.*

There were a total six bodies in the area and three people taking cover behind some of the seats. The security camera had been destroyed and the main body of it lay on the floor. After reloading the pistol Booker used a First Aid Kit.

*Hard fight?* she asked as the three people scrambled to leave the area.

"Yeah. Three of those Houdini's. Shock Jockey would have made it a lot easier." He walked over to the splicer he had killed as he reloaded the autopistol. "Guess they decided to take advantage of… oh, you don't know."

*Why don't you start at the beginning.*

"Yeah" he said as he searched the corpse. "Went to eat at the Bistro and they had news on one those television things. Seems Atlas went through with his idea to attack Olympus Heights. Heavy fighting."

As if to punctuate what he said, the sound of a distant explosion echoed through the tunnel.

*And Clarice's people are in the middle of it.*

"They might have gone someplace else after they got back to the city."

*I hope they did.*

"Me too. The attack forced Ryan to send a lot of Rapture's security to fight them."

*While the cats away, the mice will play.*

"No cops, just the opportunity some of these people have been waiting for."

_Approaching a Little Sister is a criminal offense. Do not approach the Little Sisters. _

While searching the dead they found thirty four dollars, some isopropyl alcohol, two pep bars, some kind of enzyme sample and enough ammunition to replace all he had used. Booker started to leave when she asked *Can you look at the camera?*

He complied without asking why. It took him only a moment to pry open the housing to reveal a complex maze of tubes and wires. There was more equipment in there than was needed for transmitting pictures. Rather puzzling that it contained film as well. Booker's fingers traced over a few of the tubes as he tried to figure them out.

"Think there is liquid in these things. Looks like you can move these tubes around and change how it flows."

Some of the electronics fed directly into the tubes holding the liquid, but she had no idea why.

Booker paused a moment and used the Bypass Plasmid on the camera. As he did so the tubes with the liquid became covered with blue flame. That was it!

*I think I understand it. These cameras have organic systems built into them. It must be their memory and programing or at least part of it. It has to be ADAM based in some way.*

"Change the flow of the tubes and change how they work, right?"

*Or who they work for. That must be how hacking works.*

"Possession." He said it in a tone as if he had figured out something.

*I don't quite follow.*

"Possession works on people and machines both here and in Columbia. It's because of this fluid."

*ADAM is organic. Not a huge leap from something like ADAM to people I suppose.*

"Now we just have to figure out how to rearrange these tubes."

*It shouldn't be too hard to do if we have the technical schematics. If we have even one for a vending machine we should be able to figure out all of them.*

There were sounds of people coming down the tunnel from the tunnel to Fort Frolic. "Best be going." As Booker stood his eye caught something under one of the chairs. A mask? He quickly went over and picked it up and continued on to Prosperity Way. As they walked down the tunnel they took a closer look the mask. It was a plain gray in color and covered most of the face except around the mouth and under the nose. You could breath and eat without any problem.

"Someone must have dropped it getting away from the bandits."

*Not going to try it on?*

"Think I'll wash it first."

Just as they exited the tunnel and stepped back onto Prosperity, the paranoid older Constable confronted them. 'Him again?'

"Whacha think you're doing there?" he demanded.

"Just doing some shopping officer." Booker told him calmly.

"Shopping for what? Let's see what you got!" He got right up close in Booker's face. Surprisingly, Booker flinched slightly.

"Picked up some books and some food. Nothin' illegal about that is there?"

"You over in Olympus Heights? You part of that? Huh? What do you know about it!?" The Constable was getting more aggressive.

"Only saw the news about Atlas attacking the Heights less than an hour ago. Don't know anything more."

"What a story!" the man sneered. "How come you look like you've been in a fight?"

"Got attacked by some bandits on the way back here. I can prove I was shopping." With that Booker carefully got out the history book.

"You went and bought a book? Something wrong with bookstore we got here? We aren't good enough for ya?" The Constable was back in Booker's face which caused Booker to lean away from a little.

"The bookstore here is closed. Order of the Council."

A perplexed look crossed the man's face. "Yeah, the Council." He started looking around. "They're watching me ya know." He leaned in close again, but in a conspiratorial way this time. "Ya gotta be careful. They're always watching. Gotta keep a finger on me. Pushing me down. Pushin' us all down."

He turned and started walking down the Way. "Watchin' us all."

Booker waved his hand in front of his face as if trying to get some fresh air.

*Shouldn't drink on the job.*

*I'm not sure what's worse. Him being hostile or friendly.*

Booker started heading for the hotel. "Friendly, no doubt about it."

*He doesn't seem to be wrong about the cameras watching everyone though.*

"No, he's not."

*I've been thinking about that camera.*

"What about it." Booker was again keeping his voice low as there were a fair number of people about. Still no children though.

*There was a lot more equipment in there than would be needed for just a camera. But I have no idea what the other equipment does.*

"In other words the cameras can do something more, but we don't know what it is."

*Yes, something more for us to worry about.*

They were just about to the Renascence when the spotted an Audio Diary setting on the ground next to a planter. The woman's light voice had a dreamy tone to it.

_Cilia Canfield: Purified_

_Date: February 21, 1959 _

_It didn't hurt much at the start, but as it went on it got worse. It was so bad that I thought I would lose my mind. Then, then I realized what was happening. I was being purified. The pain was my sins and imperfections being burned away. Soon my soul and body will be pure and I shall be able to bring purity to others._

_All shall be pure. _

"Huh. Recorded today." He went to put the Audio Diary back down when they noticed the plants in the planter didn't look right. Booker reached out and touched the leaves on a few of them.

*What's the matter with them?* They looked dried out, but other plants were still healthy.

"Like they've been baked." Booker said as he crumpled a leaf between his fingers.

*Baked?*

"Couple of these leaves looked scorched. I guess something here was hot, but no hot enough to start a fire."

*Or whatever the heat source was didn't stay here long enough that anything caught on fire.*

"Nothing to do with us."

*True.*

Soon they were in the lobby of the Renaissance. The Houdini Splicer Charles was on duty at the desk, but there was no security guard. Knowing others couldn't see him use the Plasmid, Booker Bypassed both the turrets as he passed by them. There weren't many people around at the moment except in the lounge, which was doing a huge business.

No one seemed to be enjoying themselves though.

"Atlas's attack on Olympus Heights is a surprise for a lot of people."

*I guess all of Ryan's propaganda about him beating Atlas backfired on him. I wouldn't surprise me if Atlas planned it that way.*

Booker decided to take the stairs this time.

"His type has to think on their feet. Probably saw an opportunity and took it. Doesn't know how to fight a war though."

*He seems to be holding his own against Ryan.*

"Ryan doesn't know how to fight one either. Most everyone down here are irregulars, not trained soldiers. Most aren't trained at all."

*The Vox were irregulars too, weren't they? They seemed to know what they were doing.*

"Vox spent years getting ready. Daisy had a few ex-military teaching her people. Don't see that here."

*So both Atlas and Ryan are just throwing people at each other?* What a waste.

"Pretty much. Most of Rapture Security seems to be police or thugs. Atlas's people are average people with a few of his own thugs."

*Ryan Security seemed to have some military people in it.*

"Yeah, but not many and fewer now. Ryan should have had them training, not fighting."

*So we have two leaders fighting a war that neither of them knows how to fight. Ridiculous.* 'And the Little Sisters are trapped in the middle of it.'

"Sure is."

They had arrived at the room now.

*You would think that they would find someone who had some experience or training.*

"You said it earlier."

*Humph. Never underestimate the fallibility of an egomaniac.*

-Booker-

He unloaded the book and cans of food and washed the mask. He had to admit this plastic stuff the mask was made out of was interesting. Light, water proof and reasonable strong. Wouldn't trust it too far, but there were probably a lot of uses for the stuff.

He rubbed the left side of his face a moment. Still itched. After that he put the mask on and looked in the mirror.

*You look like Erik from The Phantom of the Opera.*(1) She had an amused expression on her face.

"Thought he was the villain?"

*Ok, bad comparison. The important thing is that even I can't recognize you with that mask on.*

"That's what was needed. So, where do you want to go next?"

*Might as well get the makeup before you change your mind. How about going to Zeus Apartments after that?*

"How long to learn how to make fake ADAM scars?"

*It's going to take a lot of practice. But I don't think we need it for this trip. You only have to get past one camera.*

She had a point. "Guess it's off Kleen Pharmacy then. Think I'll try out that U-Invent machine."

*We have the parts for two Auto Hacks.*

"Actually want to see how that Exploding Buckshot works."

Shortly they were picking out makeup he was going to be using to make the fake ADAM scar. He had no idea there could be so much makeup. Must have been a couple dozen colors of lipstick and nail polish. Then there were all sorts of creams, powders, something called mascara and a host of other things. Figuring out the Tear Machine was simpler. Fortunately Elizabeth was there to tell him what to buy.

As he was paying, he asked about Infusions.

The man who ran the store laughed. "Make good conversation pieces, but wouldn't catch me drinking one of 'em."

"Guess I'm look'n for some conversation pieces then." he told the man with a small smile.

"Herm. Might still have some. Tried to send 'em back, but Ryan Pharmaceuticals wouldn't take 'em. No returns my ass." He turned and called "Hey Jose'! You remember where you put those Infusions?"

A man in his mid-twenties stuck his head from out of the back room. "Yes sir, but we only have one left. Samson was movin' the crate awhile ago and dropped it."

"God dammit. Glad I fired that clumsy jackass." "Just don't stand there Jose', go get it!"

Jose' ducked into the back and the man muttered "Hard to get good help these days."

*What a grouch.* Elizabeth noted as she folder her arms and leaned against the counter.

A couple of minutes later Jose' returned with an Infusion. "Know anyone else that might have more of these?" Booker asked.

"Bet Ryan has a bunch in some warehouse. Hope he lost money on 'em. Selling to us small businessman and lying about how well it will sell."

"Hope he did lose money." he told the man with a smile.

After bargaining a little about the cost of the Infusion, they paid for their purchased and headed for the U-Invent. Once there he made three rounds of the Exploding Buck and two Auto-Hacks.

Back in the room he dropped off all but one of the EVE Jars and the makeup. Then changed into a set of work cloths and drank the Infusion. He picked up the tool box then grabbed an EVE Jar and put it inside.

*No machine gun?*

"Think it would stick out too much still."

*True, we don't need that Constable harassing you again. I wonder why he wasn't sent to fight Atlas?*

"Would you want him on your side in a fight?"

*Probably not. Who knows though? Maybe he actually is good in a fight.*

"Rather not have to find out."

They left the room and went to the elevator. On the way down he put on the mask. No one even gave him a second glance as he walked out onto Prosperity and headed for the Welcome Center.

_Attention: Travel to and from Olympus Heights is temporarily restricted. Citizens found attempting to enter or exit without proper authorization will be relocated to Apollo Square._

*Guess that's Ryan's way to trying to trap Atlas's forces.*

"Good luck with that. What's this Apollo Square?"

*It's a large transportation hub in one of poorer sections of the city. It's not far from Olympus Heights and Artemis Suites.* She said "Artemis Suites" flatly.

Good job, you just reminded her of where Atlas killed her. "Sorry."

*Not your fault Booker. It just caught me a little off guard. We are going to have to go there at some point.*

"Unless we find her someplace else first. Leave it for last if we can."

*You think Anna would avoid Artemis Suites.*

"Figure she would pick up on your feelings about it, want to stay clear." 'I hope.'

*You're probably right.* She sounded relived for some reason.

When they passed through the Rest Area again they found that the Security Camera had already been replaced, but that the dead bodies were still there. He Bypassed the camera and took a quick glance at the bodies, but they had already been harvested. They couldn't stay long without it seeming a little suspicious.

Soon they were back at Bounty Square. The same Bouncer and Little Sister he had seen earlier was still there. But the Bouncer looked as if he had been in a fight since then, the fresh blood on his drill confirmed it.

*Seems that there are quite a few people desperate enough for ADAM to attack a Big Daddy.*

"Could someone do it? Take down one of them?"

*I suppose it's possible, but it would be very difficult. Rapture isn't as nearly heavily armed as Columbia was.*

"You should know, it's not the weapon that's the most important."

*And people here don't have much in the way of skill either.*

"They can learn, if they live long enough. Or if they are smart, come up with another way. Just think what a couple of those Security Bots could do to a Bouncer. They stay up high enough, Bouncer can't touch 'em."

He Bypassed the Security Camera and headed down the tunnel towards Zeus Apartments. Only a few people were around.

*A couple of Houdini Splicers could do much the same thing. Wear it down from a distance.* She threw up her hands. *Now you got me doing it.*

"Doing what?"

*Figuring out ways to kill a Big Daddy.* She didn't sound that happy.

"When we find Anna, I'm probably going to have to go through one of those false protectors to get to her."

*They may not be as strong as Songbird, but they are still powerful. The Bouncer that killed Comstock destroyed the Motorized Patriot I brought in through a Tear. Even after Comstock managed put him down, he got right back up again. And you saw what that Rosie did to the splicers that attacked it.*

"Didn't say it would be easy. But don't think these Daddies are as tough as a Handyman."

*True, but despite your skills Booker, I wish you had something more powerful than a Machine Gun.*

They stepped into the spacious lobby of Zeus Apartments.

"Humph, wouldn't be bad to have something like a RPG or Volley Gun. Who knows? Maybe find something here that will help."

End Chapter 31

(1) The Phantom of the Opera was first published in 1910.


	32. Chapter 32

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 32

-Booker-

The Zeus Apartments was bigger than he expected by a long way. The "lobby" was several hundred feet long, about ninety wide and went up five stories. The right and left sides were lined with apartments and the far end was a floor to ceiling glass wall with a tunnel leading out. Massive chandeliers hung from the ceiling on long chains making the place nearly bright as day. Several banners also hung from the ceiling with Raptures regular themes of productivity, science, art and such.

A section of the lobby had grass and a small number of trees. A miniature park he guessed. Beyond that was a small "outdoor" café. On the right side, sandwiched in between two apartment doors, was another Securis Door. At both ends of the lobby were stairways and elevators that allowed access to the upper floors.

Not many people around right now which didn't bother him. That many of them that were around showed signs of splicing, did.

*This place isn't half bad. At least by Rapture's standards.* Elizabeth acknowledged.

He glanced at a pillar with ornate geometric designs on, "Anywhere in Rapture that isn't this Art Deco?"

*Not that I know of. Guess Ryan has a fetish for it. Always looking back.*

"Back?"

*Ryan. The style Art Deco is from the 1920's and 1930's. It was losing popularity when Rapture was built. And I don't think Columbia was making any architectural breakthroughs either.*

They started walking down the lobby ion the general direction of the café.

"I see. It's from when Ryan was younger. Comstock was much the same."

*And just what was Comstock trying to recreate with Columbia?* She actually wanted to know despite the scorn in voice.

"Something that never was."

*Well, that's was suitably cryptic.* she told him with one raised eyebrow.

"Sorry. Columbia was what he wished his childhood had been more like."

*Oh.*

He was rather surprised that she didn't ask anything more. He reached his hand up to scratch his face before he remembered the mask. Itching seemed to have died down some, but it still bothered him.

On the other side of the café was a short wall with a three machines. A Circus of Values, a Delightful Food Automat and a Gene Bank.

They went to look at the machines and Bypassed them as he did so. Or tried. The Automat refused to be bypassed.

*Must be a normal machine. They're usually better stocked.*

"Not sure I would want anything from one of those."

*The strawberry shortcake wasn't bad.*

"Think I'll take your word for it."

*Never seen an automat before?*

"Heard about a big one opening in Times Square just before I left for Columbia. Didn't have a chance to try it."(1)

They continued towards the far end of the lobby but spotted an Audio Diary left on a bench.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Foolish Dreams_

_Feb 03, 1959_

_The wonders Rapture has created. I sometimes wish to return home with them. The humiliation Japan has suffered would be avenged. We would crush the Americans, the British, Russians and all the others who stole our honor. We would rule as we are supposed to! _

_But that is, what the term? Ah, a pipe dream. I know I can never leave Rapture. The American's, or the Russians would find me before I set foot in Japan. _

*I wonder if Ryoich lives here or nearby. Point Prometheus isn't far.*

"Rather avoid meeting him. Sounds the type to find out what went wrong."

*You think he could recognize you?*

"No, but why chance it?"

"There you are! You're LATE!" a squeaky man's voice called out.

He turned and saw a short chubby man in a winkled suit hurrying toward them.

"Not again." he muttered softly.

The man came up to them huffing from the effort. "You were supposed to be here hours ago! Now..."

"Sorry, fella. Got me confused with someone else. Just passin' through."

"You're not the repairman they sent?" the man said with a stricken look on his face.

"No. As..."

"Look, do you want to make a make a little money? I need a job done fast or I'm going to get fired!"

*Better luck with the next...*

"What's the job and how much does it pay?"

*What? Are you seriously considering this?*

"Mr. Blessing wants the door to one of apartments opened, but the lock was changed! Tenants aren't allowed to change the locks. It's in the contract!" He was slowly getting more frantic.

*Blessing? He was the guy I rented from.* There was a strong note of distaste in her voice.

"Think I might have a way in."

"You're not going to break down the door, are you?" Now he was scared again.

"Don't plan on breaking anything. So what's the pay?"

"Would a fifty dollars be enough?" His expression shifted to hopeful optimism.

*I hope this guy never tries to play poker.*

"Where's the door?" Booker asked with a smile.

The man, who they found out was Bertram Sawhill, took them up to a room on the third floor and talked the entire trip. Seems he had just taken over as manager a few weeks ago after the previous manager, while drunk, had tried to kiss a Big Daddy. Blessing sent Bertram to run the place despite him being an account with no experience.

*I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him.* Elizabeth admitted. "What did you mean by Not Again?"

*Couple of times I was pretending to be a workman and someone thought I was there to do work for them.*

They came up to the door and he glanced at the name plaque and did a double take.

The name on the plaque was "K. Ryoich".

He was careful to not let his expression change and Elizabeth didn't say anything though he knew she was as surprised as he was.

Booker made a show of examining the lock for a moment and asked in a conversational tone "So, this guy get behind on his rent or something?"

"No, oh no. He's not coming back. Mr. Blessing said something about Rapture Security."

*Couldn't happen to a nicer man.*

He got out an Auto Hack out and opened the door. "There we go."

Bertram reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet.

"Make you a deal. Keep your money. Just let me… "look around" in there for five or ten minutes."

"But, but Mr. Blessing said everything in there should be sold."

Booker draped his arm over the man's shoulder in a friendly fashion. "Does your boss know what's in there?"

The man blinked several times rapidly. "I, I, no, he doesn't."

"Great. What he doesn't know can't hurt anyone. Sure he'll make a nice profit on what's left and you keep your money in your pocket. Everybody wins."

"I, I don't know."

"Bet your boss doesn't pay you much. Why should you be spending your hard yearned money for something HE should be payin' for?"

"I guess I shouldn't."

"It's a deal then. Shouldn't take me long. If you want, you can wait here."

"Yes, I.. what?"

Booker quickly walked into the room, leaving Bertram standing outside.

The apartment's living room looked more like an office or study. A large mat near the door held shoes. One wall was coved by bookshelves and was packed with books in different languages. Opposite the bookshelves was a large desk pushed up against the wall with piles of neatly stacked papers on it. Prints similar those in Ryoich's office down in Fontiane's Department Store hung on the walls. Besides a chair in front of the desk there was only one other, a large overstuffed recliner that faced the television. In one corner were several shrines.

"Guess he didn't entertain much."

*That was nicely done Booker.* Elizabeth told him as she looked at one of the prints.

"Nicely what?"

*You just convinced a man to more or less steal from his employer and that it was the right thing to do. I see where I get it from.*

"Get what from?" Could be hard to follow her train of thought sometimes.

*Grifting, manipulating people.*

'Time to bite the bullet.' *Actually learned some of it from your mother.*

*My mother? But what would she…?*

He went over to the desk and took a quick look through the papers. *Before I met her, Annabelle wasn't very nice, she... used people.*

*She was a grifter?*

*Grifted, lied, tricked, stole, seduced, ruined marriages.*

Three batteries in the desk, but nothing else of use. He moved to the bathroom where he found some aspirin.

*You make it sound like she was a prostitute.*

*No, she wasn't one. Not quite.*

*How could you...?* She was confused. Anger was probably next.

*How could I love her? When she met me, she changed. Don't know why. Some warned she was just going to use me and toss me over when she was done. But she never did. A messed up kid and she fell in love.* He closed his eyes a moment.

*You weren't together very long, were you?*

*No. Ten month, seven days.*

They were in the small kitchen now and he topped off his EVE with some tea and found some distilled water. The table was oddly short. Looked as if you had to sit on the floor to eat at it. He didn't even see any chairs in the room.

*You make it sound like she was a lot older than you.*

*She was.* He couldn't help but laugh a little. *Never told me how much older.*

He entered another small room. On the walls were pictures and what he thought were military honors. One of the pictures was of a group of men in uniform with something that looked like a date and the number 741 on it. Opposite the door were two curved swords in their sheaths on a small rack.

"Kind of a bust." he said as he walked to the bedroom. A few more Japanese style prints on the walls and a large paining of sunflowers. A low bed, night stand, dresser and a closet.

*You don't have a picture of my mother, do you.*

*No. Pictures where a lot more expensive back then.* 'Here goes.' *But you know what she looked like.*

Nothing in the closet by clothes and few pairs of shoes. All very neatly arranged.

*How could I know what my mother looked like? You said she died when she gave birth to me.*

*She did. Memory was messed up about a lot of things, but not that. You saw someone just like her in Columbia. Paintings, statues.*

*After I got out of my Tower I hardly had a chance to... Oh. You mean Lady Comstock, don't you?* She sounded a both a little shocked and scared.

*Her name was Lady Annabelle Comstock.*

*Comstock married an alternate version of my mother. God.*

Here it comes.

*Why didn't you say something when you saw her!* Elizabeth yelled. Hard not to flinch.

*My memories of her weren't, right, when I was in Columbia. Lady Comstock looked familiar, but not like I remembered Annabelle.*

Elizabeth was quite as she thought things out. Dresser didn't have anything useful. There was an Audio Diary that he picked up. Play it later.

*Lady Comstock, she could have been a mother to me.*

*I think if she had known the truth, she would have tried.*

*But she was so angry.*

*She could have a temper. When your mother married me and the other Annabelle married Comstock, they both promised never to betray, never stray. And when Comstock showed up with a child he claimed to be his, what was she to think?*

*That Comstock had betrayed her with another woman.*

*Wasn't really angry at you. She couldn't stand having the symbol of his betrayal in her home and Comstock wouldn't tell her the truth. You heard what Lutece told her. How would she be able understand that, much less believe it.*

*If she had known the truth, what would she have done?*

*Would have been the final straw. Think she would have tried to send you back home, even if she couldn't go back to Columbia. Failing that, protecting you from Comstock and saying the "Miracle Child" story was a lie.*

*She did eventually decide to tell the truth and Comstock killed her for it.* *And I said such things about her.*

"You didn't know. Did work out, after a fashion."

*Would have saved a lot of pain.*

"Maybe, maybe not." He walked over to a small night stand and opened the case on it. Inside was an Infusion, a Columbia Infusion and some papers with writing on them. He put them in his tool box for later. Elizabeth was quite again. Had a lot to think about.

He looked over the room a moment. Something didn't fit. The painting of the sunflowers. Everything else was of something oriental. But not that.

He walked over and tried to move the painting, but it didn't budge. Took a moment to figure out it was on a hinge and it swung easily side to reveal a large wall safe.

*Finally found something.*

"Hope there's something in here." He used the Auto Hack and the safe cracked open.

*I guess Ryoich didn't trust banks that much.* Elizabeth observed after he opened the door.

Inside was nearly four hundred dollars, a small bar of silver, a passport and an automatic pistol he didn't recognize the make of. After collecting the money and silver bar he looked at the pistol more closely. It had Japanese marks on it and didn't seem to be a bad design. He had something a lot better though, so he put the weapon back and locked the safe.

*I think our ten minutes are about up.*

He glanced at his watch. "Yeah, your right."

They walked to the door and opened it just as a rather nervous looking Bertram was about to knock.

"Sorry, didn't think I would be so long. Nice doing business with you Mr. Sawhill, have a nice day."

The man just stood there as they made their way to the stairs and the lobby below.

-Elizabeth-

They had made Blessing and Ryoich, poorer today and neither one would ever know. Since Rapture Security had Ryoich, it seemed doubtful he was still alive to even care. But sticking it to Blessing wasn't going to bother her in any way.

Part of her mind was still going over Lady Comstock, no, Lady Annabelle being an alternate version of her mother. How could things have been different? She really should have already known much more about both women. When she could still see Behind all the Doors, she could have easily discovered so much, but never thought to look.

No use worrying about it. She needed to pay attention to what was happening here and now.

Booker was already down on the first floor looking around for something.

*Looking for anything in particular Booker?*

"Someplace out of the way. Want to look over those notes before I use that Infusion. Besides, haven't seen a Little Sister yet."

*Humph, hurry up and wait again.*

"Ah, looks like a good spot."

The "good spot" turned out to be a disused storage closet. They looked over the notes, most of which were in Japanese. From what little was in English seemed to indicate that Ryoich was trying to figure out exactly how and why Infusions worked. Along with the notes was a chart showing how often the Infusion shifted.

"They can make Infusions, but don't know how they work."

*Well, you DRINK Infusions and don't know how they work.*

"Have a point." He said with a hint of humor as he checked the seal on the Infusion before drinking it.

"Shield is up as far as it will go."

*You've just been building up your Shield?*

"Best way to save on First Aid Kits is to not have to buy 'em."

Next, Booker got out the Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: Project Restart _

_Feb 19, 1959_

_Mr. Ryan is most displeased by the destruction of the device. I fear he blames me rather than the incompetent fools he assigned to protect the device. But all is not lost if Dr. Hirschfield is to be believed. The status report he submitted indicates he has made great progress in the last several days and is building a new device. But he seemed... unsteady when I talked to him. I shall visit Dr. Hirschfield's new work area tomorrow. If he is correct, the Pro Tempore Project could be continued and my honor regained. _

*Booker, do you think they could build a new Lutece Device?*

"No, don't think they could. But, can we take the chance?"

*No, we can't. Point Prometheus is the center of technological development in Rapture. Hirschfield's lab should be there or nearby. The far tunnel should take us in the right direction.*

"Have to go there anyway."

They left the storeroom and after Booker threw away the papers and empty Infusion bottle, they started for the tunnel. Before they got there eight or nine people exited from it and moved to one side or the other. They were getting out of the way of something. A moment later the heavy footsteps of a Big Daddy reached them.

Booker stood aside as the Daddy and the Little Sister he protected meandered out of the tunnel and into the lobby. The Little Sister was a little older than the others they had seen, probably nearly ten years old, but she acted just like the younger ones.

When the tunnel was clear they joined the other people as they walked to the tunnel and left Zeus Apartments behind them. Part of the way down the tunnel they came up on what must have been a security checkpoint. Sandbags had been piled up and a barrier with a firing port had been wheeled into position. Behind the sandbags was a turret and a short way down the corridor a Security Camera.

He Bypassed both the turret and camera with no problem, but something made him hang back a little. One of the men ahead of them didn't seem quite right. He had on a white dinner jacket, black pants and jester mask on.

As they got closer the turret started up and turned to face the splicer in the jester mask. The other people in the tunnel tried to back up or find some cover.

Before the turret could fire the man in the jester mask screamed "Death to the Metal Tyrants!" and shot a bolt of lightning from his hand that hit the turret, shutting it down. The man then ran up to the turret and started smashing it with a club.

Unfortunately for him, he got too close to the Security Camera further down the tunnel. It quickly fixed on him it its spotlight and an alarm sounded. It occurred to her that they didn't actually know what happened when a Security Camera sounded an alarm.

A couple of other people in the tunnel did seem to know and looked around and in a few moments a pair of Security Bots flew down the tunnel and opened fire. The splicer, intent on destroying the turret, didn't notice the bots until he was hit.

"Metal bastards!"

Injured, but far from dead, the splicer threw a lightning bolt at the nearest Security Bot causing it to crash to the ground. The remaining bot unleashed another attack which the splicer managed to avoid the worst of by ducking behind the wheeled barrier. Behind him, the turret recovered from the Electo Bolt and before the splicer could react, it turned on him and opened fire, killing him.

With their target dead, the still active Security Bot flew off and the damaged turret returned to standby mode. A few moments later the disabled bot recovered and flew after the other one. Booker tagged both with the Bypass Plasmid before they left.

Before the second Security Bot was out of sight a woman in a dirty night gown walked up to the dead man and started looting the body, only to be pushed aside by a man in white lab coat. "He's mine bitch!" he warned in a harsh voice.

"No! He's mine! I saw 'em first!" she screamed back at him in high pitched screechy voice.

The man drew a automatic pistol, a .45. But before he could fire, a swarm of insects burst from the woman's hands and enveloped him.

"Bees?" Booker said softly as he backed up a little to make sure he stayed clear of the fight.

*Ugh. They must be Rapture's version of a Murder of Crows.*

The man thrashed around for a moment as the woman opened fire with a .38 hitting the man several times. It seemed to focus him and he steadied himself and fire back. The bees must have been making it difficult for him to aim properly as only one of the three shot hit.

For some reason Booker took a quick glance backward and saw the last person in the tunnel running back the way they came. Did that guy know something they didn't? Booker seemed to think so and started backing further away from the fight.

The woman emptied her pistol in the man in the lab coat. It was more than he could take and he collapsed to the floor. The swarm of bees hovered over the corpse a moment while the woman started to reload. The swarm moved about randomly for a moment or two and then headed directly for them.

'Call 'em off! Got no quarrel with you!" he called to the woman. She just smiled a little as she finished reloading.

"God dammit!" he muttered as he dropped his tool box and drew his autopistol. Just before bees reached him, he opened fire on the woman. Booker put four rounds into her before she dropped. But her death didn't stop the bees. They attacked, but were unable to hurt Booker due his Shield. At least for the moment, but how long did these bees keep attacking?

He put the autopistol away and raised both hands. "Let's see if this works." Both of Booker's hands ignited. Just then, the bees vanished with a loud buzzing sound.

"That was convenient." Booker said as the flames faded away.

*Were you trying to build up charge to burn away the bees?*

"Thought it was a good idea."

*Might even have worked.*

Booker picked up his tool box and went over to the bodies. They recovered a thermos of coffee, a tin of sardines, something called "Doc Hollcroft's Cure-All" which Booker put aside, some kerosene, fifty eight dollars and replaced the ammunition he had used.

He stood up and started back down the corridor only to slow a little and look closely at the turret. His eye's seemed to pick out random spots on the turret and examine them. What he saw she didn't know, but when he was done she had a very good understanding of how the turret was put together. She did a comparison of the ones in Fontaine's to this one and noticed that there were some differences, but they were more in style than function.

She wondered a moment how Booker saw the turret. Different than she saw it or something similar? She still had to ask him about how he could just go use a gun or piece of machinery he had never seen before.

As they walked they passed a tunnel leading off towards Olympus Heights, but it had been sealed off and had a pair of turrets guarding it. They could hear more of the echoes of the fighting going on in Olympus Heights here. Both of them had quickly gotten used to the distant fighting and barely noticed it anymore.

The tunnel ended at Janus Center, a complex just short of Point Prometheus. They passed through a small foyer and out into a mid-sized lobby. There were signs of heavy combat here. Bullet holes marked the walls, rubble half blocked a hallway to their left, the large planter in the center held only ashes and a toppled over Gather's Garden lay on the other side of it. To their right was a burned out elevator and the remains of a destroyed turret. No other people were around.

Booker looked up a moment to see the glass ceiling three stories above them. "Where next?"

*I'm not sure. Guess we have to look around.*

"Let's try there first." said and looked to the partially blocked corridor. He quickly climbed over the broken concrete to find two Rest Rooms. They checked the Men's Room, but found little of use other than an old bag of peanuts, which Booker declined to eat. All the stalls had been broken open and money taken from the meters.

Booker turned to go to the Ladies Room next. The contents of a purse lay scattered about the floor, but there was nothing useful. Like in the Men's Room, all the stalls had been broken open, except one which was locked up tight.

"Want to open it up?"

*It does seem odd that this one was left alone. It's only five dollars and I think we have enough money at the moment.*

Booker fed the meter and the door opened to reveal the corpse of a man in worn work clothes. An Atlas supporter maybe?

*Shouldn't be surprised.*

"More proof that people often hide important and expensive things in public rest rooms."

The only thing the man had was a .38 pistol and three extra rounds for it. "Nothing here. Hope there's something else around."

*Like an exit.*

They did a quick search of the rest of the first floor and found several abandoned offices. They hadn't suffered as nearly as much damage as the lobby area. Next they found the door to a large laboratory that took up a large portion of the first floor. The room was large and had all sorts of equipment, chairs and control panels near the door. At the other side or the room was host to a massive Tesla Coil.

Electricity constantly played over the coils surface and from time to time bolts of man-made lighting would jump from it to one of several lightning rods set up around it. To the left was a door with a broken door switch that spat sparks. To the right were what looked like the controls for the Coil.

They walked over towards the Tesla's controls, but stopped when they saw a woman's body on the floor dressed in a white lab coat and wearing heavy rubber boots. Now they were a little closer to he controls, they could see small bolts of electricity playing over them. Booker looked a little closer at the body and it was evident that she had been shot. It looked like several bullets had hit the Tesla's controls, which explained their current state.

Booker looked back the Tesla Coil whose only concession to safety seemed to be a red line on the floor marked "Danger".

"Place doesn't look all that safe."

*You should know by now safety isn't a high priority in Rapture. Unless there is money in it.*

That's when they spotted two piles of what looked like ash, but they both knew what they were. The remains of someone who had been killed by a Tesla Coil. Near remains were a shotgun and a heavy revolver along with a small metal box.

"Get those last." Booker told her and motioned with the Air Grabber. He walked over to the door with the broken control and hit the switch causing the Shock Treatment Gear to activate. The door slid open to reveal a moderately sized storage area filled with parts for electrical equipment. A search uncovered two batteries, glue, an Auto Hack and a box containing six shot gun shells. The label said they were "Electric Buck" which was something new to her. The label explained that targets would suffer an electrical shock when hit that caused damage and stunned them. Sounded like just the thing Booker needed to deal with Houdini Splicers.

They returned to the main room and searched the desks which turned up two pieces of rubber hose, a rotten apple, some kerosene and a wallet with twelve dollars.

*I wonder how long since anyone has been in here.* Seemed strange that all this equipment had been left running.

"She's been dead awhile." he said motioning towards the dead researcher. "Been weeks, maybe a month."

*A lot of power being wasted here.*

"Wouldn't worry about it if it comes out of Ryan's pocket.*

Next was the shotgun near the Tesla Coil. Booker picked a location where they an unobstructed view of the shotgun and well back from the red warning line. Then he pointed the Air Grabber at the weapon and the shotgun started to move. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of blue white light.

Then, nothing.

End Chapter 32

(1) New York City's first major Automat opened July 2, 1912.


	33. Chapter 33

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 33

-Elizabeth-

What happened? She couldn't hear or see anything! Booker had been pulling a shotgun with the Air Grabber, then a flash of light and now nothing!

*Booker! Boookeer!*

'Dead?' No, he couldn't be dead. She knew she would. Unconscious? Not that either. Even when Booker as asleep she could still hear. The only thing that...electricity.

That was it.

Somehow Booker must have been hit by a large amount of electricity and it disrupted the Communication Plasmid. But what hit him? He was far enough away from the Tesla Coils. Did someone attack him?

Nothing she could do about it other than wait.

It took some time before she started to hear something. It was just distant static at first, but it grew louder and slowly resolved into the hum of the Tesla Coils and crack of electrical discharges. Still couldn't see anything.

Then came a groan and Booker's eyes cracked open. He was on the floor.

*Booker, are you all right?*

He coughed. "Yeah." was all he managed to get out before he coughed again.

*You don't sound all right.*

He didn't respond, but she heard him fumbling around for a moment, then the sound of a First Aid Kit being used.

"Ahh, better." he said as he got up off the floor.

*Take it easy a moment.* Sometimes his being so stubborn wasn't the best of things.

"Humph. Had worse."

He looked around the room and she realized they were almost ten feet from where they had been. Booker looked back at the wall that was now directly behind them and she could see impact damage where he had hit it.

*What happened?*

"Damn thing hit me with a bolt of lightning." He seemed a little surprised she didn't know that.

*Booker, all I saw was a white flash. Could you describe what happened?*

"The Air Grabber was… Where is it?" He looked around a moment before he spotted it lying on the floor under a desk.

"As was saying, the Air Grabber was starting to pull the shotgun and a big bolt hit it. Then the bolt came right at me."

He picked up the Air Grabber, but it didn't work. "Damn."

*The electricity must have shorted it out.* She wanted to see how it was put together, but she would have preferred it to be in working order at the time.

"Shield took the worst of it. Wait, didn't hit me, hit this." he said as he shifted the Air Grabber in his hand.

*Of course!* She should have seen it. *Magnetic fields and electricity interact with each other. The concentrated magnetic field generated by the Air Grabber must have acted like a wire to allow electricity to flow like it was a piece of copper wire.*

"Fascinating." Booker said dryly.

*Now we know why you shouldn't use that near powerful sources of electricity.* Right now Anna was probably makes irritated faces at someone or something.

"Just hope we can fix it."

*We should be able to. We know where to get parts.*

"I guess. Let's get away from those things." Booker said as they left the room.

They didn't find anything else of interest on the first floor and moved to the second. Unlike on the first floor, there were people here doing work in several of the laboratories and offices. The rooms not in current use were all locked and neither of them thought it a good idea to try and break into them. As they walked down a side corridor, a researcher walked past them looking skeletally thing and mumbling about the "tyranny of food."

There were signs of fighting here as there had been on the floor below. Booker said it looked like a retreat or rearguard action and that the attackers were coming from above. They turned a corner and nearly ran into a woman seated on the floor taking apart and assembling a turret with incredible speed and precision in the middle of the hallway. She wore a vacant expression and her eyes were fixed on what she was doing. There was an Audio Diary on a floor near her, but she didn't react when Booker picked it up.

_Janice Marker: Not what I came here to do._

_January 18, 1959_

_I came to Rapture so I could have the freedom to do my research on what I wanted. No men in suits or uniforms telling me what to do. I get down here and it's more of the same. No, worse. At least back home they wouldn't draft me to create killing machines without a decent budget. I don't have enough time or money and Ryan's goons are breathing down my neck. God, I hope this new Mental Focus Plasmid works. I don't know what will happen if I don't get results soon. _

The woman removed a panel on the turret and Elizabeth realized she had seen something very similar inside the Security Camera.

*I should have remembered.*

*Remembered what?*

*Those parts on the Security Camera that I didn't understand. They're for reading genetic codes. You can't fool these machines with masks or plastic surgery. If they find a genetic code listed as being the enemy, they attack.*

*And I'm not in the system.*

*Maybe. Or they could be reading you as Comstock.*

Booker made a disgusted sound and turned to leave. As they walked away he glanced back to see that the woman's expression hadn't changed, but she swore a tear ran down her cheek.

There wasn't an exit on this floor and had they started back to the stairs when a voice called out.

"You there good Sir! With the toolbox!"

Booker turned to see a man with frizzy white hair and a mustache wearing a lab coat stained with what looked like rust and an ugly tie walked up to them.

"You look lost, may I be of assistance?"

The man looked normal enough, until you got close enough. The pupils of his eyes where contracted to pinpoints, his smile had a waxy look to it and kept his right hand behind his back as if he were holding something.

"I have a work order for a Doctor, uh, Doctor Hirschfield." Booker told the man.

"Oh, you're on the wrong floor. He's on the third floor, hallway C."

"Thanks for the help." Booker told him as he turned to go. He took a step and suddenly pivoted bringing the Air Grabber around to hit the researcher. The Gear activated, sending electricity through the man, immobilizing him. The man's right hand was no longer behind his back and that it held a long knife with dried blood on it. He had just been about to plant it into Booker's back.

Booker walked behind the man and just as the electrical shock wore off and hit him in the back of the head. Unlike with Walter, the man dropped to the floor, unconscious. Booker re-holstered his heavy revolver. Guess that's his backup plan if he doesn't knock someone out the first time. A quick search only found a hip flask full of isopropyl alcohol.

'He was drinking that? Surprised he's still alive.'

Booker shook his head slightly, probably thinking about the same thing she was.

_Tooth ache? We can fix that with Painless Dental's Patented Fast and Painless Tooth Mender in FIVE Minutes or Less. Visit Painless Dental in the Medical Pavilion Today! No Appointment Necessary! _

Before they headed of the stairs Booker kicked the knife under the railing to the lobby below. "Probably going to have to come back through here."

As they headed for the stairs she asked *Why did you turn your back on him when you knew he going to attack?*

"When most people attack, they only think about attacking. Nothing for defending themselves. Leaves them wide open."

*So by you pretending to be an easy target, you enticed him to attack on your terms and make himself an easy target.*

"Yeah, controlling where and when is a big help in a fight. Didn't get much of a chance for that in Columbia."

*Sounds like something from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.*

They had reached the stairs and started climbing to the next floor.

"Never read it. Chinese books weren't exactly popular back then."

'Might was well ask now.' *Earlier when we were talking about my mother, you called yourself a kid.*

Booker stopped climbing and took a breath. "What I was really. Barely eighteen when I married Annabelle."

*Eighteen? But...*

"Ran away from home at fifteen to join the Army, at Wounded Knee when I was sixteen, got married, become a father…. and a widower, all before my nineteenth birthday."

*Sorry. I'm still having trouble thinking you as being so young." He was just a teenager at Wounded Knee, not even a man yet.

He has started climbing the stairs again, but at a slower pace. "Didn't go advertising it. Would have never been let into the Army or gotten a job."

*You ran away from home when you were fifteen? What about your parents, brothers and sisters?* It would be nice to have grandparents, aunts and uncles.

"Had a little brother, Tom, died of a fever when I was ten. He was only six. Mom... Mom wasn't quite the same after that. She died two years later, an accident. Or so I was told." He didn't sound as if he believed it was an accident.

*And your father?* Booker didn't say anything for nearly a minute. They reached the top of the stairs and headed over to a corner with a Circus of Values.

"Don't know if he's alive or dead. Don't care either."

*He's your father.* It took a few moments for Booker to respond. Why was he acting this way?

"He, my father..." Booker let out a deep breath and swallowed. "Comstock and his father were much the same."

*I'm sorry, I, I shouldn't have pried.* 'Oh, God. Booker, I didn't know. Didn't… He's a victim too, the same as I was. A curse passed on from parent to child. How long has it been going on? How many people have suffered?'

He took another breath and let it out. "It's ok. Probably good practice for when Anna asks." He actually sounded a little relieved. It must be so hard for him to tell her this.

"Comstock."

*What about him?*

"He never realized how much he was like his father. I didn't either, not for a long time."

*Booker, you're not like that.*

"Wasn't I? Drinking, hurting people, gambling. Took… took selling you to start realizing it."

*But you changed. Thank you, I know you didn't have to tell me all this. How hard it must be.*

"You've the right to know."

*When or if Anna asks, you have my permission to leave out some of the details.*

"I'll keep that in mind."

-Booker-

Not all that surprised Elizabeth telling him what to say to Anna. What surprised him was that she wasn't doing it more often.'Wonder how often five year olds tell their parents how they're to be raised?'

They walked over the Values machine and bypassed it. Looking through the list he bought two servings of tea to build up his EVE reserves and a First Aid Kit. Didn't even have a listing for drinkable EVE.

*Getting tired of coffee?*

"A bit, especially this place's. 'least Columbia had good coffee."

As they turned away from vending machine a couple of scientist came down a corridor arguing heatedly about something. He stepped out of their way as they walked to the Values machine, still arguing. Both had minor ADAM scars, but on the surface seemed relatively normal.

He and Elizabeth walked down the first of the corridor but it only went a short way before it ended at a locked security door. They turned back and saw that the two scientist's argument had turned into a fist fight. And neither knew how to fight. They almost comically threw punches at each other that either missed or didn't do much damage.

*Just what we need." they both said.

They walked to the next corridor. Like the other labs, most of them were locked except one on the end. Sign by the door said "Marlow Labs". They glanced inside but only saw tables, complicated mazes of glass tubes and bubbling coactions that smelled badly. He was about to leave when Elizabeth stopped him.

*This place seems familiar.*

*Like the other times?*

*Yes, I don't know why. I was never even near here when I was in Rapture.*

"Could Anna have been here?"

*I don't see how, but I suppose it's possible.*

He looked down the corridor, but didn't see anyone. The "fight" would keep them busy for a few minutes.

"Guess there's no harm in a quick look."

The looked for a short time, but didn't see anything until he found an Audio Diary beneath some paperwork.

_Kenneth Marlow: Business from Ryan Pharmaceuticals _

_Feb 17, 1959_

_Seems Optimized Eugenics is in over its head developing Plasmids for the war, so they tossed me a bone. Said they wanted to copy a Plasmid developed by Fontaine but never released. All the original notes were destroyed in the fighting, but they had one bottle and they sent it to me to be analyzed. Going to need some new equipment for this. Until it arrives, I have the bottle locked in the volatiles locker. Passcode is 8915. _

"Huh. Doubt whatever it is came from Fontaine."

*It's probably a Vigor. You going to use it?* she asked with a concerned look.

"Doubt it." The locker Marlow mentioned must be that big one on the far wall. "New Vigor would stand out."

*Best that it's destroyed then. That should slow down Ryan's Plasmid development a little.*

He went over to the closet and put in the code. Inside the locker was a blue grey bottle with a stylized octopus on it, Undertow. As he picked it up he had the urge to uncork it and drink. It was just a slight urge, but still there. He walked over to the nearest sink and poured the Undertow down the drain, rinsed the bottle and filled it back up with water.

*You're going to put it back?*

"Yeah, if nobody know's it's gone, no one will cause problems while we're here."

*Wish we had found something useful, like another Infusion.*

"Can't find something you want every time."

They left the lab and went back down the corridor where the fight was winding down. Both of the scientists were bloody and having trouble standing. As they neared the corner to the last corridor they heard someone yell behind them.

"Just what do you think you're doing!"

A man was storming up the stairs. He mostly bald and what hair he did have was nearly all white. Looked a little familiar for some reason. The man started to berate the two men that had been fighting.

They turned the corner and at the far end was a Securis Door flanked by two thin windows.

*Finally.*

They passed a U-Invent and several pay phones part way down the corridor. If there was anything else here, they could find it on the way back. They had just reached the halfway point when they saw water on the floor in front of the door.

*Leaking? But would mean the tunnel is flooded.*

"Dammit."

Looking out one of the windows they could see that the tunnel went out about twenty feet and abruptly ended. On the sea floor below were pieces of twisted metal and broken glass along with what looked several dead bodies. Forty or fifty feet beyond the break, the other end of the tunnel jutted out of the building across the way. He looked up, but couldn't see the top. Must be tall.

*That's Point Prometheus. It's supposed to be the tallest building in the city.*

"Looks like we're not getting there today." he said sourly.

They turned away and started back down the corridor. *Trying to use the tunnels and passages ways to get there doesn't seem like a very good idea.*

*You just want to take the Stingray out.* He smiled a little despite himself. Wanting to take that sphere out was a good sign.

"We really didn't get a chance to put it through its paces coming up here." she said with a smile that was part sweet and part smirk.

He was glad that she wasn't real, else she would have half the men in the city after her. Something to look forward to when Anna gets older.

They passed one door and Elizabeth told him to stop.

*This is Hirschfield's.* Sure enough his name on a small makeshift sign by the door. *I thought that the lunatic with the knife would have lied about Hirschfield being here.*

"Huh. A helpful madman. Wonders never cease."

The door had a Number Lock on it, which wasn't a huge surprise. Making sure no one else was about, he used one of the Auto Hacks to open it. The room was mostly dark with a few lights some at the other end of the room focused on a large device that looked to be a Tear Machine. He stepped inside and the door shut behind them. He turned on the flashlight to find the light switch.

The lights came up and revealed a large room packed with equipment, tables, black boards with writing all over them and stacks of papers on one end and the Tear Machine on the other. All over the room were empty bottles of Hop Up Cola and empty Pep Bar wrappers. They approached the device cautiously, but as they got closer they realized it wasn't a Tear Machine at all.

It was a piece of worthless junk. Electronics had been mounted on it at random. Wires and cables went every which way. Pieces of metal stuck out from it in odd places.

*We were worried about this?* Elizabeth said throwing up her hands. *This looks more like some kind of Avant Guard sculpture. And it's not even a good one!*

"Don't have to worry about Ryan getting a Tear Machine anymore."

*I hope there's something here to make this wild goose chase worthwhile*

There was a sound back towards the other end of the room, opposite corner from the door. Giggling?

With the heavy revolver drawn he moved towards the source of the sound, the Cat's Feet keeping his movements silent. In the corner of the room two tables had been pushed onto their sides and a blanket had been thrown over them to make something of a tent.

The sound giggling came from inside the "tent". He reached over and pulled the blanket aside to show a unshaven man in a grease and blood covered clothes. He held both hands up by his face. His blood covered fingers looked wrong, shorter than they should be. He really didn't want to look too closely.

The man, Hirschfield he assumed, finally noticed him and he looked up. "I did it! The secrets of Time, the Universe! Mine, all... mine." His eyes were large and held only insanity. He giggled again and turned to stare out into nothing.

In the "tent" with Hirschfield were a small pile of Plasmid containers. He picked several of them to read the labels. Brain Boost, Thought Provoker, Mental Focus, Memory Minder and others.

*Not ADAM sickness, all these Plasmids he took must have had some kind of interaction. They destroyed his mind.*

"Saves a bullet."

*That would be the only way to make sure he didn't build a Lutece Device wouldn't it?*

He actually wished she hadn't accepted that so easily.

"Had to consider the possibility. Think there's anything here?"

*I hope there is. Wait, this would be a good time to take a look at the Air Grabber.*

"Here?"

*I don't think Hirschfield is any threat and some of the parts we need might be here. What we don't find here, we can buy on the way back.*

"Would save a trip." He threw the blanket back over Hirschfield and started looking around the room. They found three batteries, two pieces of brass tubing, some kerosene and three lengths of rubber hose. As they searched he was sure that Elizabeth was remembering the locations of all the electronic parts they saw.

Against one wall behind a desk they found a small safe that had been left open. Only had thirty five dollars in it. Unsurprisingly, there were no Hop Up Cola or Pep Bars left. Hirschfield must have been living on them for days now.

After that, he spent a few minutes finding a work bench and cleaning it off. It only took a few more to remove the screws holding the main body of the Air Grabber together. Elizabeth spent several minutes looking it over and figuring out how it worked. Thought he had a general idea of how it worked, but Elizabeth rattled off terms, named all the parts and was enjoying herself. Way she talked about it, you might think she had built it or something.

Only three parts had been damaged by the bolt from the Tesla Coil and she had seen two of them when they searched the room. She also said that they had been lucky. Whoever had built it had added extra insulation. He noticed that there were some extra brackets to mount parts in and a small door that could be easily taken off and put back on. Guess whoever had made it hadn't been quite finished.

The replaced the damaged parts as quickly as they could and left Hirschfield giggling with joy. Didn't think he would last a week in his current shape. On the way back, he used the U-Invent to make another Auto Hack and found an Audio Diary left leaning against it.

_Buster Morrison: Can't Remember the Code_

_December 28, 1959_

_Having trouble remembering the code to my own office now. Before I forget again, it's 9571. Hmmm. Real nice color on these walls, should get a swatch and see if I can get it in my apartment. What was it I wanted to remember? Oh, yes. June's Birthday is in two weeks. She is going to love what I got her this year. _

"Think his office is in Point Prometheus?"

*Maybe. We didn't see the name here. It would make a good excuse to look around. You can pretend to be lost.*

"Don't need to pretend." he told her dryly.

*It's more convincing that way, maybe?* she said a bit sheepishly.

They went down the steps and the Right Hardware in Bounty Square. They chatted a little and the trip back was quite. He knew that Elizabeth was puzzling out something out by the way she talked. It wasn't until they had gotten back to Bounty Square before she told him.

*I think I have an idea to improve the Air Grabber.*

"And what would that be?"

*That electrical shock you got from the Tesla Coil. It traveled up the magnetic field generated by the Air Grabber, correct?*

"Didn't really see that well, but think it was more like traveling beside it or around it. Looked a lot like Shock Jockey actually."

*That's good enough. I still don't quite understand how they focus the magnetic field, but if electricity can travel towards the Air Grabber, why can't it travel the opposite way?*

He was glad she wasn't using the technical terms. He was better read than five years ago, but it was nearly sixty years out of date.

"You're trying to make the Air Grabber shoot lightning bolts."(1)

*Yes. We are going to need more parts though. A DC to AC Inverter, heavy duty wires, definitely a step up transformer. A heavy duty rechargeable battery would be nice, but we will probably need to use normal batteries. I wonder if I set it up so that if you get electrocuted again, the Air Grabber can absorb some of the charge. How to get a big enough capacitor in there. Hmm.*

He couldn't help but smile. Sounded good to hear her talk like that.

"Let's worry about getting it working first, worry about the rest later." He wasn't sure she heard him though.

He went into the store and picked up four more batteries, more rubber hose and some heavy gage wire. Elizabeth was still lost in thought.

*Elizabeth.*

No response. He called again. Still no response.

Time for more drastic measures. *If you don't come out now, all the popcorn will be gone.*

*Popcorn? Whe...Hey! That wasn't nice Booker.* she pouted.

*Needed your attention and would rather not yell.*

She grumbled a little, but directed him to the remaining parts they would need. A capacitor wasn't one of the parts she told him to get.

After they left the store she scowled at him and asked *Why did you think that mentioning popcorn would get my attention?*

*Always gets Anna's attention.*

*Humph.* she said and turned her back on him. *I'm surprised you didn't say "cotton candy".*

"Hadn't really been invented yet. Couldn't figure out a way to get it to absorb electricity?"

She sighed. *No. Oh, I can get it absorb part of the charge, but the size of capacitor I can fit in the Air Grabber isn't very large and wouldn't hold very much.*

"And it would be more added weight."

*Hmm. Hadn't considered that but yes, there would be more weight.*

"Best not to add much more than. Gets too heavy and it gets hard to use."

*You have trouble with it being heavy?* She sounded like she didn't believe such a thing was possible.

"Extra weight can throw off the balance or actually slow down a swing. Not by much, but enough it could make a difference."

*I suppose you're right. This Air Grabber is more heavily built than the one I used.*

"Don't think what's in here" he gestured with the bag that held the parts "is enough to make a difference."

*Guess you'll have to make do with just shooting electicity at people then.*

"Just have to suffer. Let's get back to the room, 'bout dinner time. Then we can fix the Air Grabber and figure out hacking."

Chapter 33 End

(1) Not as crazy as it sounds. There is something in development called the electrolaser that does much the same thing. Of course the Bioshock universe is a place where you can shoot lightning bolts from your hands.


	34. Chapter 34

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 34

-Booker-

Booker fixed a simple dinner and then they got down to working the Air Grabber. In about two hours they had it working again and the new parts to make it shot lightning installed. Whoever had built it certainly knew what they were doing and putting in the new parts had been surprisingly easy. He almost thought it had been intended for it to be made into a lighting thrower.

Couldn't really test the Air Grabber's new function inside his room though.

Elizabeth told him that each shot would drain one of the batteries and only three would fit inside. Only three shots before he had to open it up and replace the batteries. Batteries didn't seem to be overly easy to come, so he planned to use it sparingly.

After they were done with the Air Grabber, he made Elizabeth take a break. She tried arguing until he reminded her that she was only five years old. After the break they started in on the technical schematics. The first one they looked at actually was for a bathysphere, the Humpback Whale. Not what they were looking for. The others were for a Circus of Values, the Security Bots and the Health Stations. He really couldn't follow her as she worked. She was looking at the Health station schematics when she told him she thought she had figured it all out.

*All these machines use similar control systems. Once you figure out one, a similar process can be used on the others.*

"We just have to rearrange those tubes? Doesn't sound too hard."

*There's more to it than that. The Security Bot schematics make mention of anti-hacking measures. If you make a mistake the system can overload and electrocute you or activate a security alarm that summons Security Bots. And there is a time limit.*

"Guess I'll have to make sure I don't make a mistake. Any idea what Bypass might do?"

*Hum. It's possible that if you try to hack a Bypassed machine, some or even all of the anti-hacking measures may be disabled. We're going to have to… go and do zome hacking to frind out sure.*

*Sound like it's your bedtime.*

*I'm fine. I..(sigh) Goonight Booker...*

In just a moment she was asleep. He was tired, but not sleepy yet. He picked up the history book they had gotten and stated to read. He just skimmed the first two chapters which covered things up to World War I. Reading about the war was a bit harder than he thought it would be. Millions dead fighting from holes in the grounds. He was glad Fink hadn't decided to try and copy those "tank" things. Time to sleep.

…

Awake before Anna. Least he slept the full night this time. As he shaved he noticed the left side of his face didn't feel right. Kinda numb, right where it had been itching before. Looked normal. He pressed on it and he could feel, but it was dull.

"Damn."

Elizabeth said that nerve damage was common with ADAM sickness. Nothing to do for it. Best not to worry Elizabeth with it yet. He spent a couple of minutes talking to the air about it though.

He ate breakfast and was just finishing cleaning up when Elizabeth woke.

*Good morning Booker. Have a good night?*

He glanced back at the table to see her sitting in one of the chairs. *Morning. Was decent enough.*

*We should probably go someplace quite to test the Air Grabber's Shock function. The passage to Fortune Avenue should fit the bill nicely.*

"Was thinking of going there anyway. Rather practice hacking without people around."

*No, not many people there now.* she agreed sadly.

"And now it's open, might be Little Sister down there now."

*Maybe. I don't think Anna is be doing her…" job" for a while yet.*

*Why do you think that?* He had an idea why.

*I'm not sure. It feels like she wouldn't. Just like when it gets near dinner, I don't think she's out.*

*Think that when she relaxes a little, she might relax some at keeping you out?*

*Hum. You might be right. When I wake up, I sometimes see or hear things. They must be from Anna's dreams.*

"Anything to figure out where she is?"

*No, the only one I can really remember is some kind of knight in fancy armor. It's probably how the Little Sisters see the Big Daddies.* There was a hint of sadness in her voice and she looked down at her hands.

"Nothing for it."

*I know. Let's get going.*

On the way to Fortune Avenue they tested the Air Grabber's new Shock function on a section of wall. A bolt of lightning struck the wall were he aimed and left a small burn mark. Elizabeth mentioned that the range was going to be limited, probably not much more than fifty feet. It was a limitation he could deal with.

When they got to Fortune Avenue it was much as they had left. The fires had burned out of course, but dead bodies still lay all around. The passage that had been blown open by the attackers hadn't collapsed yet, much to Elizabeth's surprise. Most of the bodies had been harvested already.

There were several new bodies with green armbands near the remains of the Sinclair Spirits, but they had been killed by rivets. Guess they thought they could beat a Big Daddy. They would check the bodies and the several nearby buildings before they left. The hacking came first.

*Doubtful that a Little Sister will come down here again. There doesn't seem to be anything left for them to harvest.*

"No use in waiting around then."

The area was eerily quit as they walked to the Circus of Values he had Bypassed days earlier. He thought he heard some noise coming from the fire damaged Sea's Best Market which amazingly was still standing despite what had happened. Didn't see anything, but made a note to keep an eye on it.

All that was left standing of Bingham Apartments was the fire blackened outer walls surrounding a huge pile of rubble. He made sure not to look too closely at the rubble. The smell told him that most of the people that lived there hadn't escaped the fire. Elizabeth didn't need to see that.

The Values machine had scorch marks, but still worked. It took him a moment to find the panel that allowed him access to the inside of the machine and take it off.

Inside was a mass of wires, tubes, pipes and electronic components. In the center of it all was a small box. He opened the box to reveal the tubes, pipes, whatever, he needed to rearrange.

*Ok, I didn't expect that. By opening the door it started that fluid flowing. You need to…*

As she started talking, he started rearranged the tubes to direct the flow to the new outlet.

*…hurry.* Elizabeth finished as he connected the last tube and he hit the Flow Speed control and the fluid flowed only its new path.

Their first hack was a success.

-Elizabeth-

*Ok, Booker. Exactly how did you do that?* She WAS going to find out how he seemed to know how to work machines just by looking at them.

"Do what?" he asked as he closed the vending machine back up.

*How do you do things like that so easily? You pick up a gun you've never seen before and it's like you've used it for years. You piloted the First Lady back in Columbia and I don't think you were trained to repair elevators.*

"Not all that hard. Just good with machines I guess." He seemed a little puzzled. Could it be that he never thought about it before?

They checked the list of products for sale, but there was nothing new and the prices hadn't changed. The Bypass Plasmid did the same thing a hack would do, at least for the Circus of Value Machines.

*When you picked up the Tommy Gun down in Fontaine's, did you see a picture of it in your mind?*

They started heading back the way they came. *No, nothing like that. Why are you asking?*

*I guess I'm trying to figure out how you see things.*

*And how do you see something like the Tommy Gun?*

*I see it as a highly detailed drawing that I can look at from any angle and take apart if I want.*

"Do that for everything?"

*If I wanted to understand it or I'm trying to remember something.*

*Guess that explains why Anna takes things apart all the time.*

*It's not like that for you, is it?*

*Never really thought about it. Just kinda know.*

*Intuitive thinking, I should have realized. That's just about the opposite of me.*

*Notice we usually get the same answer 'bout most things.*

*Yes we do, don't we. Not that different in the end I guess.*

*Wish some that you were a little different. Wouldn't have repeated my mistakes.*

*Booker, those were My mistakes and I should have known better.* *I did know better. So don't you dare think it's you're fault.*

*Yes, Elizabeth.* he told her with false meekness. She knew that he would still blame himself despite what she said.

They did a quick search of the Sinclair's Spirits and the Tavern which only netted them some distilled water, two batteries, some glue and a length of rubber hose. The corpses with the armbands had been looted as well. Not much honor amongst thieves.

They got to the Securis door that would lead them back to Prosperity Way. Booker stopped a moment. "Think we should go back or take a look down there?" he asked as he looked down the passageway to the part of Fortune Avenue they hadn't explored yet.

*I doubt we'll be back here again, so we might as well take a quick look.*

They headed further down the corridor where it ran into another passageway. To the left it went down about thirty feet and there was a Securis Door. The sign said it led to Arcadia. To the right, the passage opened up into a larger area that held the burned out remains of the Seahorse Diner. She thought it slightly odd that there were no dead bodies here. Given the way Booker was avoiding looking at the remains of the diner closely, she didn't have much doubt of where they were. Ryan's people must have done the same here as with the Apartments.

_Jim: Hey, Mary, what's with the sourpuss? _

_Mary: Have you heard what's going on down in Apollo Square? I hear they're putting people in cages! _

_Jim: There you go again, Mary, listening to the rumormongers. Rapture Security is just rounding up the worst of the worst until the Council can try them in a proper forum. _

_Mary: People say there have been executions. _

_Jim: People say LOTS of irresponsible things. That doesn't mean you have to embolden Atlas and his Bandits by repeating them. Remember, Mary; Rapture security is OUR security._

They walked around the to the back of the ruins to see if there was anything useful around and on mounted on a wall was a machine labeled "Power to the People".

*Huh, about time we found one.*

"And what is a Power to the People?" Booker asked as they walked up to it.

*A weapon upgrade machine. Regular El Ammo Bandito machines just sell ammo. The ones that did upgrades down in Fontaine's might have been test models to see the Power to the People machines could be replaced.*

"Probably a way to make a bigger profit."

*That goes without saying.*

He tried the machine and saw listings for upgrades to .38 pistols, shotguns and Tommy Guns.

*Nothing for your revolver.*

"Leaves me with just the shotgun. Don't see any prices."

*I wonder what scam Fontaine was trying to pull with these?*

"A way to help arm his supporters when the time came maybe?"

*Wouldn't put it past him.*

"Got two shotgun upgrades. Rate of Fire and Damage." Booker chose to improve the rate of fire first and the machine performing its task. When it was done the machine turned itself off and a sign popped up.

"Closed?* they both said.

*Apparently there's only one upgrade per person. Just like Fontaine to dangle something like that in front of people.*

"A free sample. Give something away once and you can keep them coming back to buy."

*Sounds like someone tried it on you.*

"Yeah. Last time around had a couple of people try to give me free samples of opium."

*And once you were addicted, they would have guaranteed sales.* Disgusting.

"Same with Ryan and Fontaine. Creating addicts with Plasmids, then profiting off them."

*Fink was doing the same, wasn't he?* A little strange to be asking Booker about the city she grew up in, but with Comstock's memories, he actually knew more about it than she did.

"Don't really think Fink knew much about addiction. Can tell you Comstock wouldn't have liked Fink turning everyone into Vigor addicts very much."

They started walking back to Prosperity Way. There was nothing left for them here.

A short time later they arrived back on the Way and headed for the Bathysphere Bay. There weren't a lot of people out yet. Probably still getting over the shock of Atlas's assault on Olympus Heights. As they got closer the saw that there was a group of about twelve people outside the entrance of the Bay.

"Wonder what's going on?"

*Might be Ryan's "workmen" again.*

As they got closer they could hear raised voices. The groups seemed to be angry and was focusing it on the dock master. She apparently had enough and started to yell.

"Listen! It's not my fault! The entire Metro is SHUT DOWN!"

Different people called out "You can't do that! You can't keep us here! We have the right!" The rest noisily agreed.

"Hey asshole! Read the sign! Ryan ordered the Metro shut down!" She jabbed finger at a new sign on the wall.

ATTENTION!

All Bathysphere Travel in now DENIED

"Damn, should have remembered."

*Remembered what?*

"When we get here in 1960 I saw a sign saying that Bathysphere travel was stopped."

She rebuilt the Welcome Center docking bay in her mind and looked around a moment to find the sign. *I can't believe I missed that.* There were also protest signs scattered about. People were trying to leave Rapture?

"You were in a bit of a rush."

A couple people pushed past the dock master, then the rest followed.

She called after them. "Won't do you any good! They're all locked down!"

They walked up to her. "So does this ban apply to me and the Stingray?"

The woman glanced at him. "Puft. You're outta luck, buddy. Ryan Security took your Stingray."

*Great.* And they only got to ride in it once!

"But that wasn't even mine." Booker pretended to protest.

"Ryan Security said that since it was made by Fontaine, it was a legitimate target for seizure."

"Who do I talk to and get it back?"

"Don't bother. Probably sitting on the bottom by now."

Booker looked up towards the bays where they could hear people yelling. "Take it something is going to stop people from using the Metro."

"Yeah, some kinda of genetic lock thing. Only Ryan's people can use the sphere's now. At least that's what the order they sent down said."

*I bet the Bypass Plasmid will get past that.*

"Thanks." he told the woman and turned walked back down the Way.

*I guess that means you're going to be doing a lot of walking Booker.*

"Yeah. Bypass would probably work, but also attract attention when I show up in a sphere and I'm not one of Ryan's people."

*So where to next?*

"Think we might want to try that tunnel out of Fortune Avenue while we have the chance."

They had just gotten close to the newsstand when a woman with a pistol ran past them. A moment later a splicer with a shotgun ran around the other side of the newsstand yelling "Burning Man, Burning Man!"

The few people around reacted by heading for cover quickly.

"Burning Man?"

*I have no idea. Whatever it is, people are scared.*

They looked around the newsstand as Booker drew his revolver and saw the Constable confronting a person wrapped in blankets. There were fires in one of the closed stores and the ruined hot dog stand was also on fire.

*We've seen that man before.*

"Yeah, but why...?" Booker stopped mid-sentence as the person pushed back the hood.

"Shit."

It was a woman and she was on fire. Her eyes glowed with a hellish light as flames slowly consumed her. No, that wasn't right. Her flesh was *becoming* fire, not being consumed by it.

The Constable didn't seem all that impressed. "I said Get Back. You aren't supposed to come up here and you know it! Look at what you done!"

The woman looked at him. "But I must purify everyone. This place must be purified." Her voice was light and filled with certainty.

She recognized the voice. It was from the Audio Diary they found yesterday, Cilia Canfield.

"I said get back!" The constable yelled.

"NO!" The woman yelled and fire built up around her with a sound she and Booker knew well.

*Fireman." they both said in realization.

Booker called "Get away from her!" as the splicer screamed "You shall not STOP me!" and exploded in flames.

The Constable was caught in the blast and staggered back, clearly injured.

"Down on the ground! On the ground! He ordered and took something from the box he carried and threw it at the Fireman. The explosion forced the splicer back a step, but did little more. She tossed a fire bomb back at the Constable.

The explosion clearly hurt him, but he wasn't going to give up. "I'm not going to let you hurt anyone! You're not going to trick me!"

He hurled another explosive which only caused the Fireman, well Firewoman, to scream in rage.

*Booker, the Constable is overmatched.* The Firewoman was going to burn the Way to the ground if given the chance.

"Yeah, better help." He pulled up on the splicer. Before he could shoot, the Firewoman screamed "I shall purify ALL!" and brought her hands together to create a flame like a giant blow torch in front of her. The Constable was hit full on and turned into ash. Another new trick.

Booker fired, striking the splicer in the head. She spun around to face them. "You shall be pure!" she yelled and threw a bomb at him. Booker backed up quickly firing once more before the bomb detonated safely out in front of him. Thank goodness for the Fleet Feet Gear.

Booker brought up Bucking Bronco and the splicer was slammed into the air. He quickly switched to Charge and spent a moment building up its energy before releasing it to slam into the Firewoman knocking her back down the Way a short distance. As the Bronco wore off he switched to the shotgun and fired.

She couldn't believe this splicer was still alive after the punishment. Columbia's Vigor's may have been more powerful, but Plasmids had a way of twisting a person to become incredibly resistant to injury.

The Firewoman threw another bomb and Booker couldn't react fast enough. The explosion broke his Shield and hurt him, she couldn't tell how much. Even as the flames faded around him, Booker lifted the Air Grabber and a bolt of electricity struck the splicer.

Booker quickly fired three more times into the immobilized splicer, but it still failed to put her down. The effects of the shock wore off and the Firewoman screamed in fury and fire erupted from her hands.

Booker was faster than the doomed Constable, sidestepping to allow the flames to roar harmless past him. As he did, he quickly reloaded the shotgun with two more shells.

"You will be made PURE!" the madwoman screamed.

The splicer drew her arm back to throw another bomb, but Booker used the Air Grabber to shock her again. Booker ran up and fired twice with the shotgun. Something was different this time. Each time he fired the shock effect grew stronger. He must have been using the Electric Buck they found.

The Firewoman still did not fall. He backed away and drew his autopistol as his Shield slowly reformed. Two more rounds struck the splicer before the shock wore off.

"My fire shall purify ALL!"

She quickly threw another bomb, but Booker brought up Charge and rammed into her as the bomb detonated behind them. Before she could toss another bomb, Booker started firing his autopistol into her close range.

"Your sins shall be burned away!" she screamed as she built up the charge to explode again, clearly thinking Booker couldn't get away.

Booker apparently decided the same and brought up Charge again, but didn't wait for more than an instant before hitting into her. A moment later the Firewoman exploded in flame, but Booker had timed it perfectly and the Vigor's protective aftereffect protected him from injury.

Booker hit the splicer with the Air Grabber and the Electric Touch Gear activated. Before the splicer could recover, he emptied the rest of the autopistol's clip into her. Then they heard a familiar whine of a Fireman building to overload.

He quickly backed up and used Bronco to keep her from charging after them. She screamed "I am PURE at LAST!" and the splicer detonated in a massive explosion., but Booker was safely out of range.

Booker quickly reloaded the autopistol then slowly walked to the remains of the woman. There wasn't much left.

*Booker?*

"I'm ok. Seems that Parasite Gear has a sliding scale. The more spliced they are, the more you get when it works."

He reached down and picked up a box that had somehow weathered the flames. Probably made of asbestos or something. Inside was twenty dollars, a tape for an Audio Diary and set of keys. They could wait for later with those.

He started to reload the shotgun as he walked over to what remained of the Constable and just stood a moment.

"Actually wasn't that bad in a fight." Booker observed. That was probably about as far as he would go to give the dead man a compliment.

Then they walked towards the far end of the Way. As he did so, a few people started looking out of doorways and windows now that the danger was over.

"Humf. Guess I should have drank that Undertow." He told her half seriously.

*If we run across any more, I'll be Sure to remind you.*

"Don't doubt you will."

Booker went to the Circus of Values and bought two tea, several bandages and four pep bars. "That's better."

*Going back to the room?*

"Yeah. Need to replace some batteries."

As they walked back they listened to the Audio Diary as people slowly started to return to what they had been doing.

_Cilia Canfield: That Bastard!_

_Date: December 9, 1958_

_Damn Suchong! I put up with his crap for over two years and this is how he treats me? Takes a job with a big fat paycheck from Ryan and has me arrested because I "worked for Fontaine?" Bastard just wanted all the credit! _

_The cops tried to nab me in the lab. There I was surrounded by plasmids and tonics and those idiots tried to __**arrest**__ me. It was fun watching them burn. But I couldn't stay, couldn't get my notes, my research. I need to get back there before ADAM Sickness causes too much mental damage. Need to finish before it's too late. _

"Huh, keys must open that her lab."

*Suchong's main lab or at least his public one was in Point Prometheus.*

"Think there's anything left?"

*Only way to know is to go there and find out. I wonder what she wanted so much from there?*

"Guess when we get there we can find out."

End Chapter 34


	35. Chapter 35

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 35

-Elizabeth-

As they went back up to the room, Elizabeth was thinking about the Air Grabber's new function. It had worked well enough, but there HAD to be a better way to "reload" it with new batteries without having to take the whole thing apart.

The back of her mind was thinking about the Audio Diary though and distracted her in efforts of trying to improve the Grabber. The woman had thought her research was important. No, not important. Like it might save her.

'Could she have been working on a way to cure ADAM Sickness?'

If she had, she never finished the work so there was no use on getting her hopes up. It might be worth taking a look into though.

Booker was taking the Air Grabber apart again.

*Booker, when you get it open, can you leave it open for a moment?*

"Anything in particular?"

*The outer shell. There has got be an easier way to replace the batteries.*

"Wondering that myself. Would like it to draw on one battery at a time, not all of them."

*Good idea. That way you can replace a battery after every shot, not have to wait and change all three at once.* Booker glanced over to the chair on his right a moment, but there was nothing there. She didn't know why he was doing that.

They spent a short time trying to figure out how to get things to work, but kept running into problems. Realizing it would take more time then they wanted to spend at the moment, they left it for that night. The Air Grabber was reassembled and Booker picked up his mask to leave.

*Aren't you forgetting something?*

"Not that I recall."

*You're face? You've been lucky so far, I would rather not push it.*

"Alright, alright." he told her in an unhappy tone and got out the makeup they had bought.

She spent a short time explaining what everything was and what it did. Then Booker tried to apply some makeup to his face.

The results were not what she hoped for. In fact the best description was a spectacular failure. He ended looking like a clown.

After the third failed attempt Booker was getting irritated and she admitted defeat, at least for the moment.

As he was washing up from the last attempt, she figured out what the problem was.

*Booker, your touch is too heavy.*

"Heavy?"

*Yes, you need a light touch to apply makeup. Probably the reason you don't pick locks either.*

He dried off the left side of his face with a towel, but there was still hint of red left. She had told him not to keep doing it in the same place, but he hadn't taken her advice.

"So if I learn to apply makeup, I'll be able to pick locks." He sounded both skeptical and not entirely serious.

*No, but learning a lighter touch will certainly help.*

"Guess I'm not one for a light touch."

*We'll just have to figure out some way for you to learn.*

"And hope none wants to see my face."

Booker put his mask back on and they headed out for Fortune Avenue.

They were nearly at the newsstand when the Public Address System put out a loud horn like sound to get people's attention. It was followed by a woman's voice.

_Please wait for a special announcement from Andrew Ryan. _

The people around them stopped and waited. People came out of their homes and businesses or stood in the doorways. Ryan certainly had a way of getting people's attention.

A minute later Ryan's voice filled the air.

_Citizens of Rapture, dark times are upon us. Atlas and his bandits threaten the very existence of our city. The brutal assault on Olympus Heights is proof of how far he and his criminals will go to take Rapture for themselves. To protect Rapture from these parasites, sacrifices must be made. _

_As some of you have discovered, all bathysphere travel is now forbidden. Only those trusted by myself will be able to make use of the Rapture Metro without special permission. All private bathyspheres will been impounded until such time as the Atlas is defeated, and peace restored. _

_I realize that is a sacrifice for many of you and I do not take this action lightly. But this is the only way to prevent Atlas and his bandits from ravaging our city. I know more sacrifices will need to be made before Atlas and his kind are brought to justice. But we shall persevere and the parasites who would feed upon us shall be destroyed! Our city, Rapture shall prosper as never before once Atlas's and those like him have been eradicated. _

"Ryan can really give a speech, can't he."

*But?*

"Wrong type for this crowd. That kinda speech would have gone over 'lot better in Columbia."

*Guess you know something about giving inspirational speeches now.*

"Comstock did love to hear himself sometimes. You can give quite a good speech when you want to."

The version of her that Booker met in 1984 had made more than a few speeches herself. It must have nearly broken his heart to hear some of the things she said and the pain she had suffered.

*That Elizabeth left those Voxophones for you, opened the tears so you could hear for yourself.*

"Wanted me to know what happened to her. What would happen to you and the world if Comstock wasn't stopped."

*She didn't want to leave any doubts.*

"Worked. That message that she had me give you. It was the plan to keep the Prophet from ever being born."

*Yes. A plan she knew would prevent her from ever existing. For all of us from ever existing.* She sighed. *I guess self-destruction is a DeWitt habit.*

"Think that's a habit we've managed to break. Still here, aren't we?" She could hear him smiling.

*Yeah, we're still here. If we can't do it, Rapture doesn't stand much of a chance of killing us, now does it?*

People were starting to gather near the newsstand, talking about Ryan's speech. Even people that had just arrived through one of the tunnels joined the crowd. A few people seemed to agree at least in part with what Ryan said. But it was clear many others didn't. And one of them, a woman about thirty years old, raised her voice above everyone else's.

"You all heard that, didn't you?" She pointed her arm at the nearest set of loudspeakers. "We all came down here to get away from that."

Several people took notice and turned to listen. Booker stood off to the side, close enough to listen, but not close enough to be involved.

"The question is what are we going to do about it? Speak up! What Are We Going To Do?" The woman was quickly become the focus of attention for everyone.

"What can we do?" a middle aged man called.

"Yeah, Roxanne let's hear your Big Idea." a younger woman demanded sarcastically. "You going to go tell Andrew Ryan what's what or somethin'?"

"Shut up, Betty, let her talk." She was surprised to see that it the woman who made a pass at Booker when they had gone to examine the tear near the gun shop. The group of people was attracting attention and more people went to see what was going on.

Roxanne continued. "What can we do? Go fight for Ryan and get ourselves killed? Screw that!"

A male splicer with a nervous twitch spoke up "Think we should go help Atlas then? Heard he has ADAM." His voice trailed off as several of the other people turned to look at him.

"Atlas isn't any better than Ryan." someone else said.

"Let me ask you all a question. Aren't you tired of living down here in this damn fishbowl?" People started muttering amongst themselves.

*Is she suggesting that they leave Rapture?*

*I'm sure Ryan would be happy to let them go. Probably call the US Navy to come pick 'em up.*

*Pft. I'll be surprised if Ryan didn't have them killed just for suggesting the idea.* They couldn't seriously think that Ryan would let them leave.

The woman continued. "How many of you have wanted to feel the sun on your face? How many of you want to see the families you left behind? How many of you want walk on a beach, see the stars at night, have fresh MEAT on your table?"

'They DO think Ryan might let them leave.' Guess they didn't read the contract.

A man said. "Why go back? The government came in and took land my family had farmed for 120 years! Took it away like it was nothing for some stupid dam! Why would I go back?"

The heavyset man next to him broke in "Ain't you been paying attention Jeff? Ryan's already doin' the same thing. Framed Fontaine up good and killed 'em. Just so he could grab the Plasmid business for himself."

"Ah, Fontaine was a crook. Got what he deserved."

'Not yet, but he will.'

The woman who made the pass at Booker responded. "Ryan still took it for himself and that's what's important."

People started arguing back and forth as the woman speaker, Roxanne, tried to establish some order. It was time to go and they started walking down the Way as more people joined the crowd.

*I noticed that not one person even mentioned the Little Sisters.*

"Not surprised 'bout that."

_Turn your enemies against each other with ENRAGE, the New Plasmid from Ryan Industries! Evolve Today! _

They passed a Rosie slowly stomping the opposite direction on the Way, but there was no Little Sister with him. She noticed that some of the people moved to avoid Booker as he walked. Others would whisper to someone else.

*Seems you've managed to attract people's attention again. That seems to be another DeWitt habit.*

"People will talk until something else happens. Just so Rapture Security doesn't take note."

*Do you actually think that's going to be that easy?*

"Given how things tend to go for us? Probably not."

-Booker-

The trip back to the ruins of Fortune Avenue was uneventful and nothing seemed to have changed. Then it was through the damaged entrance and into the tunnel beyond. This tunnel ran about a two hundred feet before it ended at a heavy airtight door labeled the Blue Ascot Apartments.

*The people that killed everyone on Fortune Avenue were their neighbors. I wish I could say I was surprised.*

"Heard about something similar during the Draft Riots back during the Civil War. Rioters burned and looted building all over the city. Even burned an orphanage."

*That is...*

"Kids got out, if just. Still hundreds, maybe a thousand died. Damage wasn't caused by the people mad about the draft, but people who saw that the police couldn't handle things."(1)

*People taking advantage of the situation. At least the Founders and Vox believed in what they fought for.*

"Lot of Ryan's and Atlas's people believe."

*But a lot of them don't."

"No, probably don't. And then you have people going out of their minds from ADAM." 'How long before I become one of them?'

*I wonder how anything will be left standing by the time Jack gets here.*

"Guess we'll find out…" *the hard way.* she finished.

With that, he turned the wheel on the door to open it.

After passing through another heavy door they walked out into the Blue Ascot Apartments. Only a dim passageway lit by a flickering light greeted them. The corridor went about thirty feet and turned to the right. They quietly advanced to the corner and found it turned to the left as a short distance and increased in width.

Elizabeth complained about poor design. She couldn't smell what he did though. It smelled of cordite, salt water, smoke and recent death. The turned the last corner and after a short distance it ended in a large open area. The only thing they heard was falling water and the crackle of something burning. He had his heavy revolver in his hand.

Inside of the building wouldn't have looked much out of place in New York City. So long as you ignored the Art Deco style on everything. The first floor was an open area that was sunken down in the middle.

Couldn't tell how deep it was because it was filled with water. Around it were heavy columns with arches that supporting the floors above. Round lights on the some of them provided much of the illumination. There were overturned tables, broken bottles and chairs scattered about. On the opposite wall were stairs that used to lead to the floor above, but were now destroyed. Near them was a Little Sister Vent and a Health Station.

On the right was a corridor, but the sign that told its destination had been destroyed. To the left it looked like there had been some sort of offices. A few small fires still burned inside them, but there was little left for them to feed off. In the center was a shaft that went up four stories to a skylight that leaked the steady stream of water that filled the sunken area.

He counted twenty bodies from where he stood and signs of weapons fire were everywhere.

*What happened here?* Elizabeth asked in shocked voice.

He tried to see some kind of organization, but couldn't. No skirmish line, no patterns to anything. Only thing it looked like to him was a "free for all" in a bar.

"Think they killed each other."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw her look at him with a puzzled expression. *There is no honor among thieves, but isn't this a little extreme?*

"It is. But with Plasmids and ADAM sickness?"

They carefully moved further into the room, but found only more bodies. And not only men and women, but children as well. He tried to move the arm of one of the men's with his foot, but it refused to budge.

*Whatever happened, it seems to have happened at least eight hours ago, probably closer to twelve or fourteen. Looks like the Rigor Mortis has gotten quite advanced.*

He thought it was closer to fifteen, but some of these people could have died hours apart. They passed a pair of bodies, a man and a woman. The man had his hands wrapped about the woman's neck and she a pistol pushed into the man's guts.

They wore matching rings.

*I don't think it was ADAM sickness. Lot of these people were spliced, but others weren't.*

The looked at some of the other bodies and found that some had been looted.

*Somebody's been here. The question is who?*

"Survivor, stranger or the ones that caused this."

They searched the rest of the area, but found no survivors. Many of the bodies hadn't been harvested by a Little Sister yet, so they decided to spend some time here to see if one arrived. Hoped one arrived quickly.

One of the first things they examined was the damaged stairway. Elizabeth was certain it wasn't damage from Plasmids and it appeared that a number of explosions had brought down the stairway. He suspected the stairs had been destroyed to keep people from escaping.

From where they were on the first floor, he looked around to see what he could find on the floor above.

"Think we have reason to go up there."

*That U-Invent? If you want so practice hacking I guess.*

"That's another reason. Would like to try this out." he told her as he dug into a pocket and brought out the electronics board they had found in the Bathysphere Repair Bay down in Fontaine's.

*Huh, I'd almost forgotten about that. There's no one here to bother you while you try that out.*

"Yeah, don't think people would like it if I go and took apart vending machines in the middle of Prosperity Way."

*It would be a little suspicious. Might be a good idea to make sure there's nothing left down here first.*

Their search turned up two batteries, two pieces of rubber hose, seven empty EVE hypos, an Audio Diary and thirty eight dollars. They left food, wedding rings and the Teddy Bear clutched by a young boy where they were.

*That is a lot less than I expected.*

"Someone got the good stuff already."

*Whoever it was, they were pretty selective about who the searched. They might have known these people.*

"Don't think the dead care much who steals from 'em."

*No, I don't suppose they do.* *Let's see what's on the Audio Diary.*

_Burt Perquest: Lucky Looser_

_December 22, 1958_

_Used to work for Sander Cohen. Tried to get on his good side and become one of his "Disciples". Lost out to some girl I never seen before. Have to admit that cute little thing could really sing. Well, I blew my stack and said a lot of things I shouldn't have. Ended up getting tossed out on my ass. _

_Turns out I was lucky. Seen a few things that I thought were a little shifty before, but now, some of the rumors I'm hearin'? Think I would be dead now if that old fruit had taken me on. Maybe worse. _

_If I ever see that girl again, I'll have to thank her, maybe ask her on a date._

*I remember him. Tall, brown hair, a saxophone player. I guess my "saving" him from Cohen didn't do much good in the long run.*

"And the date?"

*Pft! Fat Chance on that.*

"Least you got the message he wanted to give to you."

*For what That's worth.* She looked up to the second floor. *Let's get upstairs.*

As they looked for another was up near the burned out offices, he thought about the line "old fruit" a little and how it related to her not wanting him to meet Cohen. Not hard to see that she was trying to protect him and now he knew the other half of the reason. Not the first time a man had expressed an interest in him. Still, if Cohen had met Comstock, was a good idea to steer clear of him.

*Only one stairway up, no elevator. Those people were trapped up there and couldn't escape.*

"You said it before."

*Safety isn't all that important unless there's money in it.*

"Let's look at the stairs again. Thought I saw a steel beam."

*That may not be steel. Ryan used a lot of aluminum in Rapture's construction.*

"Must have been expensive."

*Probably was, but it made the buildings lighter and easier to move around.*

He brought out the Air Grabber and turned it on. He felt the pull and jumped. An instant later they were hanging from the beam. One quick dismount later and they were on the second floor. It had been hard to avoid landing on one of the bodies of the people who had been trapped up here.

*Huh, must have used steel in the stairways. Can you take a look at that piece of concrete on floor to your right?*

He looked where she asked and bent over to pick it up. Rather heavy, but still able to hold it in one hand. A small rod of metal stuck out it. He tapped it with the Air Grabber and it gave off a distinctive sound.

*That is NOT aluminum. They must not have been able to use aluminum for reinforcing the concrete.*

He hit the steel rod embedded in the concrete a little harder and took a closer look at where it had broken off. Shouldn't have broken like that. Too brittle? "Steel doesn't seem very good."

*I found an Audio Diary down in Fontaine's. It was Ryan proclaiming how smart he was to use aluminum instead of steel to hide the construction of Rapture from the US Government. I guess some of the steel he did buy wasn't very good.*

"This piece isn't at least." he said as he dropped the piece of rubble and looked at the large pieces below. "Wonder if they put enough steel in this place."

*And how do you know so much about steel and construction?*

"Pretending to be a worker, need to know how to do the work. Welding and such mostly, didn't have a problem with heights. Also saw a few big buildings being put up in New York. They seemed to have a lot more steel in 'em."

*They certainly did. They didn't have the math worked out for structural loads back then, so they overbuild a lot.*

"But..."

*But I think your right. They don't have enough steel here and that they have seems to be poor quality.*

"That's why the bomb in the Medical Pavilion caused so much damage." he said as he started for the U-Invent.

*Place looks fancy, but it's poorly designed and constructed. Ryan outsmarted himself.*

"Never underestimate the fallibility of the egomaniac.* they said as one.

*Huh, guess I've been saying that a lot.* She looked down a moment.

"Only because it's true. Let's see about getting this panel open." He didn't Bypass the U-Invent. Wanted to see what it was like with the security measures in place.

Turned out to be harder than he though. He saw several active alarms and several overloads. Still he was able to get it right the first time.

*That was rather fast.* Elizabeth told him with a slightly impressed and suspicions tone in her voice. She wondered how he did it.

"Well, don't need a "light touch" for this I guess." he told her as he put the electronics board into an open slot.

*And?* She gave him a look as she leaned against the wall with her arms folded and one eyebrow raised.

"And I cheated a little." he admitted.

*And how did you do that?*

"The Quick-Draw Gear. Speeded up reloading, thought it might help with this hacking."

*Huh! That was a good idea Booker. I wonder what other uses some of the Gear might have?*

"Guess we'll have to figure that out."

He started up the U-Invent and brought up the list of what could be made. At the bottom was Incendiary Ammo and it gave a list of the parts needed.

*That's odd. The material list is different. This shows the "recipe" only needing two shell casing and one piece of brass. Can you look at some of the others?*

The list of all the parts this U-Invent used to make things was different. Or at least the amounts of some of parts.

*Hmm. Adding the board shouldn't make a difference. Could hacking the machine have done something so it displays the wrong numbers?*

"Only one way to find out." He choose to make an Auto Hack and to the surprise of both of them, it only used the lower amounts of parts listed.

*I get it. That's how these machines make a profit. They don't use all the materials listed for production.*

"So rather feeding it a couple of dollars, you're feeding it extra parts worth a couple of dollars."

*Yes, that way most people won't even realize that they are paying for anything.*

He just shook his head. These people couldn't even be open about making a profit.

"Going to need some more rubber hoses before I can make another Auto Hack. Let's see about these Incendiary Rounds."

Worked like a charm. He hoped these new rounds worked as advertised. Some of the Splicers he had been facing had been tough, these rounds could give him an edge.

"Think of anything else to make?"

*I don't think you have the supplies left to make anything we want.*

"Yeah, you're right about that. Going to have to visit the hardware store."

*We might be able to find something here.* she told him as she looked around.

He looked at the bodies scattered about, they hadn't been searched yet. The nearby corpses provided them with two pieces of jewelry he planned to remove the diamonds from, one piece of rubber hose, two batteries and a small amount of money.

Then they started searching the apartments. They found the first apartment had been ransacked and the jewelry box emptied. But the refrigerator still worked and he found a sandwich and some milk.

*Someone took the time to come up here.*

"But they only went after the jewelry box. Might have been pressed for time."

The next apartment had been ransacked as well and they found a small open safe. Empty, of course. On the floor behind it though was a Gear called "Firebug". There was 50% chance that melee targets would explode in flame and catch nearby enemies on fire. The enemies effected burned for four seconds.

"Not bad. Better for groups than Burning Halo was."

*Just less of a chance of it working.*

"Easy to solve problem."

*If it doesn't work the first time, you hit them again?*

"Worked well enough so far." She rolled her eyes, but wore a small smile.

The next three apartments were much like the first two. The most expensive valuables gone and the places quickly tossed. They found fifty more dollars and a Gene Tonic called Static Discharge that had been wrapped up as a gift. He didn't touch it after he found out what it was. They found more parts that could be used in the U-Invent, but not enough to make another Auto Hack.

In the next to last apartment they found an Infusion. It was just sitting in the middle of a table in the living room. Elizabeth remarked with a slight amount of surprise that people actually were using it as a conversation piece. He used it to build up his health. Being able to survive damage seemed more important at this point.

They had worked their way around the floor and the last apartment was next to the stairway. He took a moment to look up at the floors above them but didn't see any steel beams for the Air Grabber to hook onto.

*Thinking of going further up?*

"Would need rope to get up there, not really sure it's worth the effort."

*We found a Gear and a Infusion on this floor. Shouldn't there be more on the higher floors were the richer people live?*

"If there was an elevator? Yeah. But without one? The most expensive places are on the lower floors."

*Because you don't have to climb as many stairs.*

"Right. We can decide later if we want to go up there."

*After we find some rope.*

They went into the last apartment and found an Audio Diary sitting on a table in the living room.

_Al Brand: It's Over_

_Date: Feb, 21 1959_

_Never liked those people on Fortune Avenue. Thieves, freeloaders, parasites, all of 'em. Coming up here and causing trouble, botherin' the women. Then Atlas started this war and Maxwell got the idea to form a militia to protect ourselves. We knew they would come for us sooner or later. Then that damn Parker boy came up here claiming he was just walkin' through to go to Fort Frolic! Knew he was a damn spy! Max and a couple of his boys stopped him and he tried to run. Shot him dead. Parasite got what he deserved. _

_Now it's over. We finally went down there and cleaned them all out once and for all. They're never going to bother anyone again. Raptures' safer now. Going to have a party to celebrate. _

They slaughtered helpless people, children even and were proud of it. Some might think that being killed in return was a kind of justice, but there must have been innocent people here as well as children.

"Let's get out of here." He just wanted to be shut of this place and was sure Elizabeth did as well.

Shortly they were on the ground floor and were walking towards the passage back to Fortune Avenue. They were almost to the passage when they heard noises behind them. Before he could turn, two red and black clouds formed ahead of them and became two splicers. Both wore fancy white jackets and identical white rabbit masks trimmed with gold. One held a shotgun, the other one's hands were on fire.

The one with the shotgun leveled it at him and said "Just wait there fella. We just want to talk to you, so stay calm."

He glanced back to see more people coming through the other door. All but one of them were dressed just like the two Houdini splicers.

Elizabeth's voice was full of dread. *They're some of Cohen's Disciples. They must be the ones who killed these people.*

*Don't think they're going to be keen on witnesses.*

End Chapter 35

(1) The New York City Draft Riots: July 13-16, 1863. The death toll is disputed, but the "official total" of a little over 100 is certainly way below the actual. Blacks were heavily targeted by the rioters with many beaten and killed. The US Army was called in to end the rioting and reports say that they used cannon inside the city to destroy barricades the rioters had set up. While the riots had started as a protest against the Draft, it soon grew beyond that when people realized that the police had lost control. Some of people that had started the anti-draft protests actually ended up trying to protect the city from the rioters.


	36. Chapter 36

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 36

-Booker-

Seven to one odds aren't good when you're the one and they're the seven.

Some of the men in the rabbit masks were splicers, best to assume all were. Elizabeth said they were "Cohen's Disciples" and was none too happy about it. Some carried weapons, others didn't. The one that worried him the most held some kind of wide tube with what looked like a makeshift ammo clip and stock. Didn't know what it did, but had a good guess.

One of the others had the hooks used by Spider Splicers. Another had a box just like the Constable carried his grenades in and was the only one that didn't have a rabbit mask. His was a green and red bird mask with a huge orange beak. The rest didn't have weapons, but one had some kind of dark red ball in his hands. Some kind of Plasmid, but no idea what.

Given that Elizabeth hadn't said anything, she didn't know either.

As he ran down his combat options, he tried to see if he could talk his way out of this situation. "Hey, I'm not lookin' for any trouble here."

The one with the red ball in his hand spoke up as he got closer. "Do you live here?" he asked in a seemingly polite voice, but there was threat in it.

*That's Malcom. One of Cohen's favorites.*

"Ah, no. With everything goin' on I took a wrong turn. Trying to get to Point Prometheus. Have some work up there."

A couple of the men laughed. "You're a long way from your job." The Houdini with the shotgun added "Seem to have quite a few weapons there."

"Man's got the right to protect himself, right?" he told him defensively.

*I think the Houdini with the shotgun is Roth. The one in the bird mask is Hector. I'm not sure about the others yet. Watch out for Malcom, he's petty and has a nasty temper.* Guess she had a history with him and it wasn't a pleasant one.

"So how long have you been here?" Malcom "asked".

"Just got here, rather not stay." He indicated the dead bodies. As he did so, he heard the distinctive tread of a Big Daddy coming down the same corridor the splicers came from.

Malcom paused to think a moment.

This wasn't looking good. *What does Possession do to a Big Daddy?*

*It won't control them. They just won't attack you.*

Dammit. Would have been nice to have one on his side with these odds.

Malcom decided to ignore him for the moment and spent a short time looking at the married couple who had killed each other. He finally nodded with satisfaction. "These will make perfect pieces for the sculpture. Frozen in death, they shall be the perfect materials."

The ones in the rabbit masks didn't seem to be at all bothered by what Malcom was saying. The one with the bird mask was looking at Malcom.

Malcom smiled and looked at Booker. The madman had gotten an idea and Booker didn't think he was going to like it. "And I believe I have the perfect finish for My Masterpiece!" he said spreading his arms in a grand gesture.

"YOUR Masterpiece?" Hector broke in. "You told me that… You sonofabitch!" He headed for the exit at a run, only pausing to dodge the Big Daddy, a Rosie, as he entered the room. Hector yelled back "Mr. Cohen's going to hear about this!" then vanished down the corridor. Odds were a little better now.

"Mr. Cohen will appreciate they art we will create here, isn't that right?" Malcom stated with certainty. The others made sounds of agreement.

*Does he think this is going to impress Cohen? He's dumber than I thought he was.*

"Put down the tools and get over there." the splicer with the burning hands told him and pointed over in the general direction of the Little Sister Vent.

Why didn't they try to take his weapons?

*There anyway for Malcom to control the Big Daddy?* He couldn't figure what the mad splicer was planning.

*There is a Plasmid called "Hypnotize Big Daddy", but I didn't see it listed in the Gather's Garden so I don't think it's out yet.*

*Hope you're right.*

The Big Daddy went to the Little Sister Vent and pounded on it. Cohen's Disciples backed away, opening up the range, but kept careful watch on him. He could see their grins of anticipation. He tried anything they would shoot him down. He needed them to drop their guard a little before he made a move.

Malcom walked in front of the others spreading his arms wide as if he were a circus ring master announcing a performer. "Gentlemen, I give the final piece of my masterpiece! Battle To The Death With The Big Daddy!"

The Rosie was pounding on the Vent again and made a low deep moan of disappointment. Just as he started to turn Malcom threw the ball in his hand at him. It exploded, covering the Big Daddy in what looked like red paint.

The Rosie roared in anger and turned towards Booker, the light in his helmet turning red as the rivet gun come up to fire.

Booker was surprised at the Big Daddies reaction, but only slightly. He fired off Possession at the enraged Rosie as he drew his revolver and fired at Malcom, hitting him. Booker took off at a run to try to get behind a pillar before the surprise wore off. As he did so, he fired several more times to try and keep the splicers head's down.

"Kill Him!" Malcom screamed, but it was drown out by an enraged cry from the Rosie.

One of the spicers hit him with a shotgun blast, but his Shield took it and the fireballs thrown at him missed. Then the Big Daddy started shooting.

And it wasn't at him.

Malcom was shrieking "The Big Daddy! Kill the Daddy! Kill it!".

He took cover behind a pillar and glanced out to see lightning flash out from the injured Malcom's hand. It hit the Rosie and immobilize him for a few moments. Both the Houdini's appeared behind the Daddy and fired into his back.

The splicer with the tube weapon fired and something came out with a short arc and exploded when it hit the Rosie. As he thought, a grenade launcher. The Daddy retaliated in kind, throwing one of his own grenades. Its detonation injuring the grenadier and knocked him down.

Damn! The Rosie was going to lose if he didn't even the odds a little. He quickly reloaded the heavy revolver with the Incendiary Rounds. Getting to test them a lot sooner than he expected.

Roth teleported again so he could stay on the Big Daddy's back and left his own back open to Booker. Not wanting to waste an opportunity he put two rounds into the splicers back. Roth screamed as he caught on fire and ran for the pool of water in the center of the floor. As this was happening, the Rosie had turned his attention back the injured Malcom who was making a panicked dash to escape.

He never made it. Shrugging off being hit by at least three fireballs and a hook from the Spider Splicer, he focused on Malcom hitting him at least three times with the rivets, killing him.

Roth belly flopped into the water to put out the fire as the Rosie roared in pain as he burned. He fired at the Spider Splicer, but missed as splicer jumped from pillar to pillar.

*Booker! Shock the water!* Damn, he had forgotten that. As Roth stood up, Booker used the Grabber to send a bolt of lightning into him just as one of the splicers shot a lightning bolt into the Rosie.

As Roth collapsed into the water with electricity playing over him, one the other splicers realized that he was a threat and hurdled fireballs at him, but he easily avoided them. The Fleet Feet Gear was a lifesaver. The Daddy thrashed around for a moment and started to fire on the splicer who had used the lightning on him, only to be hit by another grenade.

He had to take the grenadier out, but the splicer took cover behind another one of the columns. Charging up Devils Kiss, he fired at remaining Houdini, but missed as the splicer vanished again. He quickly launched the Devil's Kiss trap just the other side of the column where the grenadier was taking cover. He placed the trap so that it would be set off as it landed.

As the trap exploded, he swung around and as he expected, the Houdini was forming inside a red and black cloud just six feet away. Booker was able to see the splicer start to move before lightning from the Air Grabber hit him. There was the sound of a loud explosion from behind, but didn't have time to worry about it. He ran up to the splicer and hit him with the Air Grabber. The first blow gained him some EVE, the second strike and the stunned Houdini exploded in flame. He burned for several moments before vanishing again. Damn, he'd wanted to get another hit in. He didn't have enough EVE for anything more than a quick Charge or one Bronco.

Booker turned back around to see that the Rosie had put down the splicer throwing lightning at him as well as the other one throwing fireballs at him. The burning Houdini appeared near to Big Daddy running for the water just as Roth had bone before him. He never made it as the Rosie opened fire and killed him.

The Possession had worn off, but the Rosie was still covered in red and he fired at the Spider Splicer, but got only a single hit. The splicer made several jumps that took him to the top floor, well out of sight of the Rosie.

The splicer cackling laugh sank down to the bottom floor. "Have fun with the Big Daddy!"

The enraged Daddy turned towards Booker, ready to fire. He ducked back as rivets slammed into the column.

Can't escape. Outgunned in a fight. He quickly drank the EVE bottle and leaned around the corner to hit the Big Daddy with Possession before he could shoot again. The dead splicers certainly had much he might be able to use and he wanted that grenade launcher. Didn't like the idea of leaving that Spider Splicer alive either. The Plasmid Malcom used would have to off sometime. Hopefully, before the Possession wore off, but he wasn't going to chance it.

The Rosie's helmet still glowed with red light, but ignored Booker as he searched for something to kill.

He needed someplace to get out of the Rosie's Line of Sight. 'Second floor.' He could take cover in one of the apartments until the Rosie left and the Spider Splicer came down. He got out the Air Grabber and was soon in the first apartment he and Elizabeth had searched.

*Any idea on how long it will take for that Plasmid to wear off?*

No answer.

*Elizabeth?*

He concentrated a moment. She was still there, asleep. He glanced at his watch and sighed. Nap time. She was not going to be happy about falling asleep in the middle of a fight.

Nothing to do now, but wait.

-Elizabeth-

Music. She thought she heard music. Then it faded away and the world slowly faded in. Something had been going on.? A fight. She couldn't believe it. She had fallen asleep in the middle of a fight!

Booker was checking Malcom's pockets and pulled out a thick wad of bills and a set of keys. What happened?

*Booker?*

*How was your nap?* He stood up and looked around to let her see the area. No Big Daddy and nothing that looked like a threat.

*It was poorly timed.* she grumbled. *What did I miss?*

*What's the last you remember?*

*You shocking the other Houdini? Yes, that was it.*

*Took care of him, well the Big Daddy finished the job. One that crawls on the walls ran up to the top floor hide from him.*

*You fought that Rosie by yourself?* No, that couldn't be right, there was no body.

*No, used Possession again and went upstairs to wait.*

*For the Spider Splicer to come down? Why didn't you just leave?*

*Wanted that Grenade Launcher.*

*Ooh, can I see it?* Be interesting to see how they made a grenade launcher out of found parts.

*Not much left of it.* he told her unhappily. *Devil's Kiss Trap touched off the ammo. Not sure I want to use one 'em now with it blowing up like that.*

*Maybe we can work at making a safer one after we get the Air Grabber fixed. So what happened to the Spider Splicer?*

*Came down about five minutes ago. Thought I would be an easy kill.*

*After all that, he attacked you?*

*Was scared of the Big Daddy, not me. He waited until the Little Sister was done before he came down.*

*So one showed up.*

*Yeah, after whatever Malcom used wore off.*

*She might have been reluctant to come out with all the people around.* She had the feeling for a moment that Anna did the same thing. *So did you find anything useful?*

*About 250 dollars, some parts and some film. That Spider Splicer liked to take pictures.* The sour note in his voice told her that she wouldn't have wanted to see them. Karl had been a photographer and a real creep. Be just like him to be crawling around on walls.

*And Malcom's keys?*

"Might be useful if we have to go to Fort Frolic." She knew he was right, but disliked the possibility of seeing Cohen again. Maybe someone will have killed him before that.

*We going back to the room now?*

"Yeah, should put some of this money in the cache, put in new batteries and get another bottle of EVE." He didn't sound all that happy about the EVE. As they started back, she started thinking about Booker's limited supply. When it was gone he would have to use the injectable kind. He didn't like the idea of sticking a needle in his arm and neither did she. Maybe there was a substitute?

*By the way, I thought you said the Big Daddy wouldn't attack while he was Possessed?*

*He didn't attack you, did he?*

"Huh, good point."

*I think the Plasmid Malcom used might have been "Enrage". Some of the others probably had it as well.*

Booker considered it a moment. *Enrage. Guess that's a good way to describe what happened. Rage took 'em over and they killed each other.*

*All for some sick idea of a "masterpiece" to please Cohen. And it wouldn't have worked either.*

*So how did you know Malcom?*

*That is a very rude and impertinent question to ask a Lady Mr. DeWitt!* she told him in mock outrage.

He chuckle, but didn't withdraw the question. *Humph. If you must know, he tried to get fresh with me. He was singing soprano for the next week.* She didn't try to keep the satisfied tone out of her voice.

"Deserved worse." Booker said a little too darkly.

The trip back to Prosperity Way was uneventful. They did what they needed and in an hour were walking back towards the Zeus Apartments. They stopped the hardware store in Bounty Square and picked up some supplies. Four batteries, three lengths of Rubber Hose and four pieces of Brass Tubing. Still no Kerosene.

In the back, one of the clerks was showing a customer how to work a shotgun.

'That's it. That's how we can improve the Air Grabber.' A feed mechanism for the batteries in the Air Grabber.

She told Booker about her idea and they spent a few added minutes picking out the parts after they finished discussing the best way to do it. Booker stored them in the tool box and they continued on to Zeus Apartments.

_Don't forget: anybody offering you a hand of charity has their other hand in your pocket. Everyman for himself. It's the Rapture way. _

When they got to Zeus Apartments, it had changed. One of the huge chandeliers had come down and lay on the floor, the remains of someone still beneath it. Half the trees in the small park had been burned, the small café was full of bullet holes and a section of the walkway on the second floor had collapsed. Over a dozen bodies lay covered by sheets off to one side.

Bertram had a lot bigger problems than not being able to get into one of the apartments now.

*Looks like Atlas came calling.*

Before they had taken three steps, they were stopped by a heavily over muscled man with a plain uniform, a shaved head and a shotgun. All the uniform had on it was the company name of "Tom &amp; Dave". She remembered seeing some signs advertising that company. What was it? Ah. "Hired Guns, Contracts, Paintings." That really didn't make much sense to her, but it seemed they did private security work.

"Let's see your ID card Jack."

Booker put down the toll box and reached for his wallet.

"Hurry up, ain't got all day." The bald man said and grabbed the card out of Booker's hand to look at it. He spent a moment studying it before tossing it back. He didn't even ask to see Booker's face.

"This isn't where you live, so why you here?"

"Just passing through to a job."

The guard spat on the ground. "Job? Not here you ain't got one."

"Not here, up in Point Prometheus."

"Why you here then, Mr. Mechanic?" the guard demanded.

What is this guy's problem? He wasn't even talking to her and she wanted to hit him.

"Meto's shut down so I gotta walk. Not so sure how to get there actually."

The guard made a face, then stopped to think a moment.

"You're not stayin', right?"

"No, just passing through." The look on the guards face showed he had come to a decision.

"Guess it'd be ok. Go out through that door over there." He jerked his head in the general direction of the passage on the right side. "It'll take you to Reese Plaza. From there you can get into the Point. Just remember, you touch *anything* here, that's what happens." He pointed to the wall behind them. Booker turned and looked and saw three hands nailed to the wall.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." Booker told him in a pleasant voice and walked towards the door.

*Such a nice helpful man.* she told Booker with utterly false sincerity.

"He's more used to causing trouble than stopping it. Goes against the grain."

A few people were trying to perform repairs, but they looked badly overworked and what they were doing was the minimum needed to keep the area habitable. Stopping leaks and repairing damaged electrical lines. She wondered how many work crews were still doing their jobs. She suspected that many had sided with Atlas. Many of the residents seemed to be either trying to ignore what happened, looked around nervously or had a tired beaten look about them.

It was a long walk to Reese Plaza and when they got there, it wasn't much to look at. It was two stories tall with a few stores on the first floor, all closed. A large staircase took them to a second floor walkway where the two exits were located. Broken concrete from the roof blocked the walkway on one side. They took the long way around and past a Tunnel that led towards the main residential sections of the city such as Olympus Heights and Artemis Suites.

There was about fifteen people here, a few just walking around aimlessly, others heading to or away from Point Prometheus. Most of them seemed to be spliced and several of them were clearly mentally unstable given their rants.

The exit to the residential section of the city was guarded by a type of turret she hadn't seen before. It had large tanks of what looked to be fuel and a nozzle. Likely some kind of flame thrower. In addition to the turret was a Constable from Rapture Security holding a Tommy Gun. The expression on his face was mean and made worse by the lesions that ran down the right side of it.

In alcoves on either end of the floor where vending machines. To the north a Circus of Values and on the south side an El Ammo Bandito. Near the Circus of Values was something new. A gray piece of equipment with a stylized picture of a Security Bot and the words "Bot-Shutdown" below it. Beside it was an advertising placard.

Booker read it out loud. "Security Bot's got you down? Protect Yourself with the new BOT SHUTDOWN SYSTEM from Ryan Industries!" Down at the bottom in small print was "Cost: 20$ per use."

*Ryan's trying to make money by turning off the security system his people depend on to win the war with Atlas.* Unbelievable.

"Looks that way." Booker responded. The puzzled tone in his voice saying he didn't understand it either.

*As you said, he doesn't know how to fight a war.*

"Humph. Ryan might lose to Atlas because he's too busy trying to make a buck."

*That's the Rapture Way!*

They went to the El Ammo Bandito and picked up six more rounds of Electric Buck, all it had. There wasn't any ammo for his revolver. Then he bought two Pep Bars to replace the EVE he had used Bypassing everything. As they went to leave, they saw the Constable start pointing the machine gun at different places in the room below them.

"I know you're out there. I can smell ya!" he yelled in the threatening tone. "Come on out! Don't make me go and find you."

The people on the first floor took cover, but the others with Booker on the second floor just stopped walking and watched the mad Constable nervously.

This went on for a short time then the Constable relaxed. "That's it, run away! Not worth my time." The man pointed the gun at the ceiling and people started moving again, though they did so while keeping an eye on the Constable.

She wondered what was going to happen when the Constable started shooting at the things only he could see.

Then they were through the Securis Door and out into the Tunnel beyond. Looking up they could see Point Prometheus and the lesser buildings they would need to search through to find Anna. If she was even in this part of the city.

_Being the best at what you do can really take it out you. So unwind! At Fort Frolic: gamble, shop, take in a show or meet a new friend, all at Fort Frolic. Fort Frolic: where the best and brightest celebrate success. _

Innovation Hall was their entrance to the complex surrounding Point Prometheus. It was a long building two stories tall with a skylight that ran its entire length. All along the walls and down the center of the room were displays showing the tools, machines and advanced devices created in Rapture. All of the displays had bullet holes in them, a few had caught on fire and some had been tipped over leaving broken glass all over the floor. In a few places the floor had actually been cratered by explosions.

Booker moved to one side and allowed the people coming and going easy passage.

This area was one of the most heavily damaged they had seen in Rapture so far, surpassing even Hermes Center. It reminded her of Columbia during the Vox revolt.

*Must have been a lot of fighting here.* she stated to Booker.

*Probably a couple different fights or one long one. Looks to be the main entrance and both side would have wanted it.*

*We should be able to explore the complex from here at least.*

A splicer stood in the middle of the hall and reached her hand towards the skylight above and acted as if she were trying to catch something. Everyone just ignored her.

There were four Securis doors in Hall, two on each side of the Hall. At the far end a wide archway between two badly damaged bathysphere replicas the looked to be the Point's main entrance. The two doors on the left had signs in front of them, but they were to far away to read.

*Which one first?*

*Might as well start with the first one on the right.*

The sign said "Subaqueous Tower."

*Well, That's an original name.*

*What?* Booker asked as they went through the door and out into the short glass tunnel beyond it.

*Subaqueous means undersea or underwater.*

*Humph, rest of the name is an overstatement.* The building ahead was only five stories tall. At least it shouldn't be too hard to look through.

The entered into a small lobby that wasn't too badly damaged. Ahead were elevators and a stairwell off the right. On the wall to the left was a building directory opposite a Circus of Values. They went over to look at the directory. It had been smashed, but some of the entries could still be made out.

Top two stories of the building were listed as "Ryan Industr oducts Devel ent Divisi n". The other listed were for self-proclaimed labs or research centers. McClendon Robotics even had a branch here.

Nothing left on the first floor other than some restrooms, a damaged elevator and an office, so they took the stairs to the second. This floor turned out to be nothing more than a series of corridors and work areas. There hadn't been much fighting here, but plenty of damage. Atlas's people looked like they had thoroughly ransacked the place.

What worried her was the lack of people. They occasionally saw someone wandering about, but there was no work being done. No one was trying to clean up either. They were able to get a few supplies, most importantly some kerosene and a few batteries, but little else.

They found a vent at the end of one hallway, but as they got a little closer she realized it wasn't a Little Sister Vent. It was one of the older styles with a grate on it.

*I don't think there's a Little Sister in this area. This is an older style vent and doesn't look like it's been set up for use by a Little Sister.*

"And the grate is closed."

*Well yes, there's that.*

"Haven't seen much trace of a Big Daddy around here."

*Nothing here for a Little Sister to harvest. One probably makes their way from Point Prometheus every once in awhile.*

"Want to take a look at the other floors before we go."

*We haven't found all that much here.*

"Wonder what Ryan's people might have been working on."

*Well, I don't suppose it will take long.*

On the third story the found several dead bodies, but they were old and likely leftovers from the fighting. This floor hadn't been looted as much and they found some money as well as four shell casing for the revolver which they converted into Incendiary Rounds at the U-Invent they found. They also made another Auto Hack Tool and three more of the Exploding Buck.

While he was working on making everything, Booker's eyes would stray to the formula for the Hacker's Delight 2 Gene Tonic. She hoped he wasn't considering using it. While the ability to absorb electricity from a successful hack and use it heal and restore EVE is useful, what the Tonic would do to him was unknown. Booker thankfully didn't make the Tonic though, but she was starting to worry about him. The way he looked around sometimes. Somehow it reminded her of Columbia, but she didn't know how.

McClendon Robotics had taken up a majority of the floor, but most of the equipment was missing. What remained was being crated up for shipment. They did find some plans for a turret that could move along rails or Pneumo lines and a couple piece of brass tubing.

As the left McClendon's, a splicer tried to attack them with a club, but Booker easily knocked her out. The room the splicer had come screaming out of looked as if she had been living in there for several weeks. The only thing she had with her was a few pictures, all of them of a young girl, maybe six years old. Booker picked up the woman and lay her down on the makeshift bed before they continued searching.

Further down the hall in one of the labs they found the remains of six researchers laying against a wall with a large number of bullet holes. Someone had lined these people against the wall and shot them. One of them had an Audio Diary tape in her pocket.

_Bethany Washington: Rock And A Hard Place_

_January 9__th__, 1959_

_Atlas attacked the Point, I, I don't know how long ago now. We got captured and thrown in here. Then one day Atlas himself comes in and looks around, asks if we did Plasmid research. Salvatore was stupid and said yes. He told us we were working for him now and our job was to make combat Plasmids for his people. How are we supposed to do that? We were developing a Plasmid to allow people to change their hair color, not something to kill people. He told us if we made something good enough we would be released unharmed. But if we help him, I'm sure that Mr. Ryan will kill us all. We're trapped. _

*I wonder who killed them. Atlas or Ryan?*

"Doesn't matter much now, does it?"

They quickly finished with the floor and went up the stairs, but stopped when they say the landing at the halfway point where the stairs turned. There were two bodies there. The second one just a few days old. Booker looked around the corner and spotted a turret. He Bypassed it before it could even finished starting up.

*That turret is new. There's no way Atlas would have been stopped by something like that.*

"Makes me wonder what's up there that someone felt the need to protect."

*I suppose we will just have to find out.*

End Chapter 36


	37. Chapter 37

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 37

-Elizabeth-

Booker carefully moved up the stairs. When they got to the top there was another turret. It had been set up so that it covered both the stairway and the elevators. He Bypassed it before it even started up. A dead body lay just in front of the elevators.

*Someone knew how to place those. Probably another one here covering that second one and the elevators.* he told her.

As he predicted there was a third turret around a corner that covered the elevator and the second turret.

*Why did you think there was another turret?*

*Second turret covered the first. Seemed they would do the same with the second turret.*

*Guarding its back so to speak.*

*Yeah. Setting this up like took some time and thought.*

*Military training?*

*Maybe. But one who put their mind to it could so the same.*

*Now, those are out of the way, let's see what's up here.* She didn't have any feeling that she had been here before, but curiosity made her want to find what was going on here.

First off they searched the corpse. He had been part of Rapture Security judging by his clothes, but hadn't been a splicer. They found 15 rounds of anti-personal ammo for a Tommy Gun and First Aid Kit.

The first couple of rooms they explored had been ransacked like those below, but they did find a battery and two bottles of Hop Up cola. The next room they found was locked with a number lock.

*The combination may be around here. If not we can always use an Auto Hack.*

"Think I'll hack it."

*Are you sure that's a good idea?* she asked, but he was already taking off a small plate to expose the locks interior. He quickly started moving the tubes around, but the flow was faster than with the Vending Machines and all the anti-hacking measures where still active.

There was a short harsh buzzing sound and Booker jerked back. *What happened?*

"You're right about it generating an electrical shock."

*Are you going to use the Auto Hack now?* Sometimes...

"Got another idea." He went and used Bypass on the lock. He tired the door, but it didn't open.

*Now?*

"One more try." Men!

This time the hack went much easier and the door slid open.

*The Auto Hack would have been a lot easier and faster.*

"Now I know how limited Bypass is. Besides, less I use the Auto Hacks, more parts I have for something else."

He had a point. She just wished he wouldn't get himself electrocuted proving it.

They walked into the room which was stuffed full of equipment. She recognized most it from articles in the Rapture Science Journal and her books, but some of them were new to even her.

*The equipment in this room is easily worth a million dollars.*

"But not all that easy to move." he said as he walked further into the room looking at everything.

*No. Looks like they decided to store this everything in here until things quieted down.*

"What have we here?"

On a shelf they found what looked like a Gear package, but it lacked decoration. Booker looked at it a moment and found a label.

"Ghost in the Machine?"

*It may be a prototype.*

"Hopefully a working one. Wish it said what it did."

*Maybe we can find some documentation somewhere. Someone thought it was worth saving.*

"Let's see what else is there."

They didn't find any paperwork on the Gear, but they found three tubes of glue and a Pep Bar. They moved on to search the rest of the rooms on the floor, but found only a battery, two pieces of Rubber Hose and an Infusion. Booker said he increased his EVE level.

The last section of rooms they found seemed to have been tasked with the development of new Gear, but everything had been destroyed or damaged. All the paperwork had been scattered about, but they found some of the papers that mentioned several Gears that had been in development. One of them, Ghost in the Machine had the exactly the same effects as Gear Head did from Columbia. Surprisingly, they seemed to have come up with the idea by themselves. There were references to other Gear's as well called Machine Master and Eclectic Eel. But the only sign of any other Gear were six destroyed containers.

In an office they found a memo from Ryan himself.

From the desk of Andrew Ryan, President, CEO Ryan Industries

Date: December 24th 1958

To: Bernard Wilkinson, Department Head, Gear Development Team

Suite 8C

Subaqueous Tower, Point Prometheus

Regarding: Department Closure

It has come to my attention that the "Gear" that has been developed by your department has fallen far short of the sales goals that were set for these products. As such, it has been determined that the resources allocated to your department are better suited to the development of Plasmids and Gene Tonics. The department is to be shut down and all positions terminated by the end of business today. Mr. Jacobsen will see to the disposition equipment.

You may inform your former staff they may apply for employment in other divisions of Ryan Industries if they wish, but they should expect no preferential treatment.

Andrew Ryan

President, CEO Ryan Industries

"Fired them all on Christmas Eve."

*Can't say I'm surprised. For Ryan, Christmas is a day just like any other.*

"Must be a constant." Booker said half to himself.

*How is this a Constant and when did you become an expert on them?*

"Well, maybe not a Constant. But these "New Eden's" like Columbia and Rapture are built on somebody else's back. And sooner or later that somebody else gets tired of it."

*The seeds of the City's destruction are part of the City's creation.* That did seem fitting.

"What happened in Columbia with the Vox. Here Atlas wouldn't have a leg to stand on if the deck wasn't so stacked in the rich's favor."

*Or Ryan's favor. Is Rapture so like your Gilded Age?*

"Yeah, lots of places like Finkton and rich people like Fink."

*But things didn't stay that way.*

"Things get better. The government starts passing laws to get rid of the monopolies. Some of the big industrialists start to change things on their own. Even become famous for building schools and libraries."

*I've seen Ryan's idea of a school. It was just for indoctrinating children with Ryan's beliefs.*

"The schools them industrialists built are collages and technical schools, not for children."

*And I suppose they did this out of the goodness of their hearts.*

"Can't say. But we do know that things have changed enough that Ryan hates it."

*Huh, I guess if Ryan hates it, things can't be all bad then. I guess we'll get to see how things are for ourselves when we get out of there.*

There was nothing else of use on this floor, so they climbed the stairs to the next floor. There was only one turret on this floor, but before Booker Bypassed, it he tested out the new Ghost in the Machine Gear. The turret took a noticeably longer time to react to Booker than other turrets had. The first couple of rooms they searched only turned up some kerosene, two EVE hypos and a single bottle scotch.

The next laboratory had a broken number lock and the remains of a destroyed Security Camera were outside the door. When they entered the room it looked like it had been dedicated to photography and camera development. The room had been torn apart as if someone had been searching for something and all the equipment smashed. What puzzled her was that some of the equipment was wrong totally for cameras.

*Booker, I think we need to take a careful look in here.*

"These are just cameras, right?"

*Some of this equipment looks like it's for reading genetic codes.*

"Like the security cameras? Tryin' to make a hand held Security Camera?"

*Maybe. Let's see if we can find any notes.*

Booker picked up several notebooks off the floor and slowly leafed through them. *Stop. Go back a page.* She had seen some of this before in a magazine article the week before she died.

*This must be where they did some of the development of Research Cameras. A Research Camera allows the user to analyze genetic information and physical structures of people and even the security systems.*

"And what good what would that do?"

*It would allow you learn the weaknesses of the splicers. You would do more damage to them.*

"Doesn't sound bad. Has to be a catch."

*Not a catch, but something you don't want to use. You can learn genetic alterations from the splicers and create Gene Tonics for yourself.*

"Don't have to use them, do I?"

*No, you shouldn't. I wouldn't think "storing" the Tonics is harmful.* 'I hope.'

"Guess if we find one of these Research Cameras it 'be worth using. Until then, let's finish up here and get to the next building.

-Booker-

The search of the rest of the floor didn't take long, but netted very little. Just some money and shotgun ammo. They returned to Innovation Hall and headed for the next building, Bay Seven. Rather an odd name given how the rest of was Rapture were named.

As they walked there he noticed a device in one of the displays claiming it had been invented in 1951. He had seen the same thing in Nikola's Lab a few months ago, even had the same name. For some people the currency they want isn't money, but fame, even if it's unearned.

They went through the Securis door and through a wide windowless corridor. At the other end was a heavy door which looked like them from Rust Alley. After going through the airlock he entered Bay Seven. The bay was a long, but not tall. Several partial built bathyspheres sat in cradles on either side of the bay. This place looked like it was from Rapture's early days.

The bay had seen some combat, but compared to Innovation Hall, not that much. No one had come in here to remove the dead though and at least half a dozen corpses lay around.

*This doesn't look promising.* Elizabeth observed as she walked over to the closest incomplete bathysphere.

"No, it doesn't. But while we're here..."

They checked the first corpse and it had been harvested already as well as looted of any valuables. They went and checked several workbenches and cabinets finding half a dozen pieces of brass tubing, but little else. Even the Circus of Values in the work area didn't have much left in it. Just some crackers and cigarettes.

After checking three more bodies and finding nothing, they decided to check the offices. The outer offices had nothing useful but some kerosene. Inside the large inner office they found a single body dressed in an expensive suit slumped in a chair. He had been shot several times. There was a large wall mounted safe on one wall and on the desk was an Audio Diary.

_William Montague: Ingrates _

_Date: December 21, 1959_

_These people, always wanting something. A day off for Christmas. Vacations. Higher pay for overtime. Safer working conditions! The ingratitude of it all! I give them a job and they just want more. If I gave them everything they wanted it would, it would cut my profits by fifteen percent. Fifteen! It's socialism! Communism! It's all that Atlas's fault! He's the one stirring up the trouble, giving people ideas about "worker's rights". I came to Rapture to get away from that. Ryan should have just killed Atlas rather than throwing him in jail. _

"Sounds like he would have liked Fink."

*Fink would have liked Rapture.* He detected a note of impatience in her voice and didn't blame her. So far this place had been a waste of time.

"Let's just check this safe and then we can go."

*Did I say anything?*

"No, but bet you're thinking it."

He tried Bypass on the safe, then went to hack it. The hack wasn't easy, even with the Bypass some security systems where still in place and it was tricky. He almost caused an overload twice before the lock clicked opened.

Inside the safe was a small silver bar, a .38 pistol and two grenades like the Rosie's used.

*I wouldn't expect to find to find grenades in a safe. Do you think you will be able to use them?*

He tested the weight. "Don't seem too heavy. Might be handy if I run low on EVE."

Didn't know if these grenades had made it worth the trip, but at least they found something. They returned to Innovation Hall and headed towards the wide archway between the bathyspheres and onto Point Prometheus itself.

There was a short corridor that ended at a set of three sets of double doors. Through the doors they entered a large lobby that had seen heavy fighting. But the money and effort that had gone into this area was still plain to see despite damage.

There was marble everywhere, the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. All set in complex geometric patterns. Mosaics made with different colored types of marble were along the tops of the walls. Even what remained of the Information Desk was made of marble. Above the shattered desk was a stylized portrait of the building made of steel and brass. At least he thought it was of this building. It was a little hard to tell since half of it was gone.

A pair of turrets flanked the destroyed Information desk and a Security Camera was mounted on the wall above it. The security machines didn't react his presence, but he Bypassed them anyway to be on the safe side. On the other side of the lobby to the left was a hallway that contained a bank of elevators and a Little Sister Vent at the end. Further to the left was a Vita Chamber. A corridor was on the right side of lobby the also contained a Vent and looked to have held some kind of shops. Fire had consumed the area and there was no telling what they had been.

*Well, this is… something.*

Elizabeth seemed a little unsure what to make of it all. Even after all they had seen, the amount of work that had gone into this lobby was still impressive. But for all the expense, he got the feeling it was just a knock off of something else.

On either side of the lobby where large alcoves containing a complete range of vending machines Rapture had to offer. Circus of Values to Health Station to Gather's Gardens. Not wanting to stand out, he headed over to the alcove on the right. He Bypassed several machines and found that the El Ammo Bandito here didn't even have a listing for heavy revolver ammunition. He did find that they carried the grenades used by the Rosie's, but were sold out. Ended up buying 20 Rounds of Armor Piercing Machine Gun Ammo. First time they had seen it.

*So how are we going to handle this?*

Unlike the other two buildings, Point Prometheus's lobby had a steady flow of people moving through it. One of them was singing in an off key voice that Jesus loved him.

*Pick up a paper and take a seat. There are Vents here, so shouldn't have to wait to long.*

While they waited, they talked about the Air Grabber upgrade. They had figured out what they needed before they bought the parts at Right's Hardware, but still had to details to work out. In the end they decided that additional holes would need to drilled into the Air Grabber. The abandoned workshop where they had found between Prosperity and Fortune Avenue had all the tools they needed to do the work.

Just after they finished and had actually started to read the day old paper, they heard the familiar sound of a Big Daddy's footsteps. The looked up to see a Bouncer step out of one of the elevators.

"Didn't think they would be using elevators."

*Elevators are about the only way to get to some parts of Rapture. Another example of brilliant design.*

A moment later, a Little Sister crawled out of the Vent, it wasn't Anna.

_Men, tired of shaving every morning? Try Genetic Horizon's Beard Gone and you will never have to shave again! For the ladies, there's the brand new Smooth Legs! All products are hundred percent safe, so make your life easier and stay healthy doing it. Try them today! _

"Want to go up a few floors?"

*Let's see if we can find a directory or a building plan. There's certainly going to be more than one Little Sister here.*

"And they're going to be on the upper floors."

The Big Daddy and his charge walked past them heading for the door that led to Innovation Hall as they headed for the elevators. There they found the building directory as well as a simplified diagram of the building.

*That's a surprise. Someone has been keeping this up to date.*

"It is? Lot of these floors don't look to have anyone on them."

*There probably isn't anyone in them actually. This is a big building and Rapture should have been built with an expanding population in mind. I read that one of the world's tallest building took nearly twenty years to be filled with tenants."

"Easier to search then. Little Sisters wouldn't go to floors without people."

He looked around a moment and spotted what he was looking for.

*You're going to take the stairs?*

"Only going to the next floor. And when there are elevators, people tend to forget there are stairs around."

*And they won't pay much attention to them.*

An elevator door opened releasing several splicers which he avoided as he headed for the stairs. They quickly climbed the stairs and into a small waiting area. The main tenant on this floor was the 1st Bank of Rapture. No teller booths here though, just offices, meeting rooms, filing cabinets and some computer terminals. Or what was left of them. Looked like Atlas's people had destroyed everything they could. They checked several hallways, but didn't see any Little Sister Vents, just the older style ones with the grates.

The next floor didn't have them either, though there were more people. They found Vents on the 3rd floor though and were lucky enough to immediately spot a Bouncer escorting a Little Sister back to a Vent. The next two floors where empty so they headed up to the six which was listed as being rented by Ryan Industries as where the two floors above it.

He stepped out of the stairwell and was immediately spotted by a Security Camera. He went to Bypass it, but realized that he didn't need to. It already burned with a blue flame. Whole building's Security Camera's must be connected. The Tommy Gun armed Security Guard that stood in the small waiting area was going to be harder to get past.

"Hey, you! Whatcha doing there?" he called. The man didn't seem to be on alert and was just going through the motions.

"Looking for the office of Dr. Buster Morrison."

"He forgot the door combination again? Let me see your ID."

He gave him the ID card to the guard who looked at it a moment before handing it back. "You new?" he asked.

He nodded his head. "Morrison's office is back that way." The guard jerked his thumb over his shoulder.

"They just gave me a name, didn't tell what the office number was."

"Office 7G. Better remember it, because you're going to be here alot."

"Thanks" he told the guard and they walked down the corridor where they saw a Vent. They passed a number of offices with open doors and people in the corridor. One woman was talking to a dead bird tied to her finger.

*You must have learned a lot from my mother. You gave that guard a name and he filled in the rest by himself.*

*Yeah, I did learn a lot from her, more ways than one.* he said sadly. *But not that.*

*Really? Where did you learn that then.*

"Couple years ago from a fake spiritualist of all people. A client's brother was spending all the families money on this "medium" and wanted me to cause some, ah "physical discomfort" to him. Thought it would be better to prove it was a grift."

*And how did you do that?*

*Attended some séances and watched. About the third one I realized that a lot of the things the guy was telling people was just him repeating what was told to him by them who wanted to talk to the dead.*

*And the people who wanted to talk to the dead would fill in all the blanks on their own because they wanted to believe.*

*A few tricks like moving stuff with magnets or hidden strings and it's an easy sell.*

They came to the door to Morrison's office and walked past it.

*We should find someplace to stay where no one will notice you. Someone's got to start asking questions if they see you just walking around.*

*Let's see what we can find.*

The next corridor over was meeting a few meeting rooms and more offices. As was the next, but half way down they saw a familiar name, Dr. Kitano Ryoich.

He glanced quickly both ways to make sure that no one else was around and got out an Auto Hack to open the door. Taking the door lock apart to hack it didn't seem like a good idea.

They slipped inside and turned on the light. Ryoich's office was fairly large and extremely organized except for some papers on the floor near the desk.

*That's odd. Ryoich has a mania for order and being neat.*

"Maybe didn't have a chance to pick them up before he left."

*You mean taken away.*

On the desk was an Audio Diary.

_Dr. Kitano Ryoich: _

_Date: February 20, 1959_

_Ryoich: That baka__Hirschfield did not have a working Device. It was worthless junk, a waste of time and money. Hirschfield has gone utterly mad from Plasmid abuse. I am glad I was cautious and did not inform Mr. Ryan about the possibility of his building a new Device. Still, I have no doubt that Mr. Ryan is most displeased with the Projects failure. _

_Ryan (over speaker) Yes, Doctor. I am very displeased. The Pro Tempore Project would have saved Rapture from Atlas and his thugs and provided an unlimited source of ADAM. Now all that is left is scrap metal and I had to waste valuable time to deal with a fool. _

_Ryoich: Mr. Ryan! _

_Ryan (over speaker) But, do you know what I am most disappointed in Dr. Ryoich? Your continuing loyalty to that warmongering King that rules Japan. _

_(Several people in noisily enter the room.)_

_Ryoich: Mr. Ryan, I have served you loyally! Let me continue to serve you!_

_Ryan (over speaker) Never fear_ _Dr. Ryoich, you shall continue to serve me._

_Ryoich: Thank You Mr. Rayn!_

_Ryan (over speaker) I have need of more Protectors for the Little Sisters and you shall serve me as one of them. Take him away. _

*Couldn't happen to a nicer guy." they both said.

While they waited, they searched the room but found nothing of use, just a lot of papers.

*Huh, Ryoich seems to have been more a paper pusher than a scientist.*

"Got to have someone to take care of the books. Don't think scientists want to be doing a lot of bookkeeping."

*What I don't understand is why isn't there more damage here? There was some damage where we came in, but nothing compared to other places. It looks like Atlas's people didn't try to get in here.*

"Kinda wondering that myself. Maybe Ryan had enough people to keep Atlas out or Atlas wasn't here for this place." Elizabeth was quite for a short time, thinking.

*Suchong. Atlas was here for Suchong.*

"You think Atlas attacked here just to get at Suchong?"

*Not so much Suchong as the Ace In The Hole.*

"The command phrase for that Jack fella you mentioned."

*Yes. Atlas must not have realized that Suchong did some of the work down in Artimis Suites until after he attacked here.*

Moments later they heard the heavy tread of a Big Daddy. They left the office and quickly located him and the Little Sister he was escorting.

The Little Sister was standing near a Vent, the Big Daddy in front of her.

"No, I don't wanna!" she said. It wasn't Anna, but he recognized a child's stubbornness just by the way she stood.

The Big Daddy, a Rosie, made a moaning sound that sounded much like a parent trying to convince a child to do something.

"But…"

This time the sound from the Rosie was more powerful and held a note of demand in it.

The girl had a pout on her face. "But I just want to play!"

The Big Daddy made a low apologetic sound and gestured towards the Vent. The Sister's shoulders slumped and her arms fell to her sides, the long needle she carried touching the ground.

"All right, time for beddy-bye, Mr. Bubbles."

The Big Daddy got on one knee and put down one arm. The girl scrambled up and into the Vent.

"They do care about the Little Sisters, don't they."

*Yes, while part of it is the imprinting process like with Songbird, I think that they do really care.* she said with a note of sadness.

The Big Daddy started to walk slowly down the corridor away from them.

Not many people in Rapture that actually cared about the Little Sisters and he was probably going to have to kill one or more of them that did to get Anna back. Was sure Anna didn't have the same kind of attachment Elizabeth had with Songbird, but she would care some.

Taking out a Big Daddy wasn't going to be easy. He thought back to the other Booker's battles with Songbird. They had never been able to beat that damn bird, but it had always been a straight up fight. The Bird always had the advantage in maneuverability, speed, initiative and power. No way to plan for it, not that any of the other Bookers tried to plan much. Knew that he wouldn't have either.

But this was Rapture, not Columbia, and Big Daddies weren't Songbird. Here he would have some advantages. The biggest one would be initiative. He was the one who could choose when and where the fight started. Maybe they could think of a way to avoid killing the Big Daddy. Anna had already seen more than enough, didn't want to add to it if he could.

Going to have to think this through, see what Elizabeth thought. He started back to Ryoich's office.

*We're going back to the office?*

"Just for a minute. Going to change the combination on the door."

*Just in case we have to come here again and need someplace to hide?*

"Couldn't hurt."

He set a new combination in to the lock and they headed back for the stairs.

*Do you think we can find Suchong's lab? I'd like to look around it.*

"Sure it's here? Didn't see it on the directory."

*The directory's been updated so it lists the tenants that are still here. Since Suchong is dead, he wouldn't be listed.*

"You think Atlas missed something?"

*He might have. Suchong copied Gear from Columbia, but I don't remember seeing anything Gear related in the Suchong's lab's down in Fontaine's or in Artimis Suites.*

This place was over forty stories tall. "Going to be climbing a lot of stairs, aren't I?"

*Think of it as excercise.*

He started to look over to the right where Elizabeth stood, but stopped in time. Looking at something that wasn't there going to help.

"You're not the one that has to do the climbing." He grumbled halfheartedly.

*You won't have to do it all in one day." She told him with an amused tone in her voice which turned sadder. *Besides, I think Anna's done for today. You might as well go get something to eat.*

Another day, another failure to find Anna. Damn this city.

End Chapter 37


	38. Chapter 38

1Bioshock Infinte: Union

Chapter 38

-Booker-

They took the elevator down to the lobby of Point Prometheus and soon walked out into the ruins of Innovation Hall. He decided to walk past the two Securis doors they had yet explore. The first one led to the "Memorial Museum". Or it HAD led there. The door had been sealed shut and a badly damaged sign sat in front of it.

The Memorial Museum of Point Prometheus

has been

CLOSED

by Order of the Council

"Huh. Why would they close a museum?"

*Don't know. When I heard about this place, I thought about visiting, but it was already shut down.*

They picked their way through the damaged displays until they came to the next Securis door. This one wasn't sealed, but there were spot lights illuminating large warning signs on either side of it.

WARNING!

Restricted Area

Trespassers Will Be Shot Without Warning

By Order Of Andrew Ryan

"Sign's new." He looked for a moment and spotted a smaller sign on the wall by the door. "Little Wonders Educational Facility", "Failsafe Armored Escorts", "Optimized Eugenics" and the "Mendel Family Library".

*This is where they make Little Sisters.* Elizabeth's voice was hard.

The Securis Door opened and a pair of splicers armed with machine guns walked out. They gave him a suspicious look and he took a step backwards. Further down the tunnel was a turret which he tagged with Bypass before the door closed again. There was also a Camera and at least two more Security Guards.

*Better leave this one for later. Don't think playing repair man is going to get through that.*

*I don't think Anna was here for...I-she wasn't...here.*

*Are you all right Elizabeth*

*Yes I'm fine.* she snapped. Anna was getting tired and just like the Little Sister they had seen earlier, she wasn't in the best of humor. Couldn't fault her for it. He turned away from the door and started the long walk back to Prosperity Way.

*Sorry Booker, I didn't mean to say it that way.* Out of the corner of his eye he saw the image of her glance down.

*It's ok Elizabeth. We're going to find you and you're going to be fine.*

*I know. It's just sometimes I.. It's hard sometimes. I don't remember being so quite moody when I was her age.* She crossed her arms and looked down feeling a little ashamed.

*Humph. Doubt anyone really remembers what they were like at such an age.*

This was hard on her, harder than she wanted to admit. She calls herself Elizabeth, remembers being Elizabeth, but she's not. Not anymore. She's Anna, a five year old girl. He wished he could hold her and make it all go away. Had to be something... Should have gotten it earlier. Be a nice surprise for her.

*So, where to next?* she asked with only a small amount of forced cheerfulness.

*Something to eat, then to the workshop.*

The walk back was uneventful, meaning that only a single splicer tried to attack them. He was only armed with a fire poker and not much of a threat. He left him a sore head and a broken wrist.

Zeus Apartments was quiet and there was only a single Tommy Gun armed security guard on duty. He had his back to the wall near the janitor's closet so he could easily see all three doors. The place was still a mess, though they did see one person futilely trying to sweep up all the broken glass from the fallen chandelier.

An hour and a half later they were down in the abandon workshop. They spent a little time working out the last details of how the "battery magazine" would be put together. As they talked he noticed Elizabeth's mood slowly improve. Doing something and being useful made her feel better. Had to be careful what to say, the wrong thing could seem like he was talking down to her and she didn't need that.

After an hour of work I the workshop later they finished the modifications to the Grabber. The batteries were inside a plastic tube and held in place by clamps. To release a clamps all he would need to do was pull on a lever on the outside of the Air Grabber and he could feed a fresh battery in and the old one was pushed out. Release the lever and the clamps would tighten down. There was a worry about water, but with some rubber gaskets they scrounged up, the insides of the Grabber should stay dry unless it was dunked in water.

By this time, both of them wanted to go back to the room and relax a little and start reading that history book again. As they walked back he gave a summary of World War I to Elizabeth. He had just finished and was nearly at the newsstand, so they decided to pick up a copy of the Rapture Tribune. That's when they noticed workmen near the entrance to the bathysphere bay putting up something.

*Another Security Camera. Ryan is really trying to watch everything.*

Now had to make sure he wore his mask even here. Was lucky he didn't need to take it off to eat.

They turned to go up the Renascence Court when two women started walking towards them. One was Roxanne and the other was the one who made the pass at him the other day at the tear. The other woman's eyes went a little wide and she whispered something in Roxanne's ear.

*What do those two want?* Too bad other people couldn't see Elizabeth. He bet the expression on her face right now would scare off a Big Daddy.

*Hard telling.* He watched them out of the corner of his eye and acted as if he'd not noticed them. Both women were dressed practically, not as if to entice. Considering the figure on the one who made the pass at him, it was not an easy task. On her right wrist though he noticed the skin didn't look right. Start of an ADAM scar?

"Mr. Boston, excuse me, Mr. Boston!" Roxanne called.

Damn. They had taken time to find out a name. Wanted him for something specific and were willing to put some effort into finding out about him.

*How did…?* Elizabeth didn't realize that someone in the Renascence or maybe the sphere bay had talked, probably with a little money to help.

He stopped and turned towards the two women as they came up to him. "May I help you?" he asked with reserved politeness.

"Mr. Boston, you're a hard man to get ahold of. My name is Roxanne and this is Missy." Roxanne told him.

"Sorry, I have business that takes up a great deal of my time." Hope they get the hint.

They didn't.

"We have a proposal for you, one we hope you consider carefully. Can we speak somewhere a little less public?"

Sure as hell wasn't taking these two back to his room. "Lobby of the Renascence will have to do."

Neither of the two women looked overly happy about that, but they still followed him.

*"Missy" certainly recognized you. I don't like this at all.*

*Not thrilled myself. Probably a job they want some muscle for.*

*Never thought that being handy in a fight would cause so many problems.*

*Being handy in a fight is power. People want power, even if they just rent it.*

Had to go to the far corner of the lobby on the opposite side of the lounge for a measure of privacy. Didn't think it would be good to have a drunk stumble into the conversation. Charles was at the desk and seemed to about to do something then stopped when he saw the two women behind him.

He took a seat where he could see the doors and it would hard for anyone to get behind him. The two women sat across from him the other side of a small table. Missy still had an admiring eye on him, but didn't seem to be inclined to do more than look.

"So, exactly what is your proposal?" Best get this over with quickly. Elizabeth was over to the left with a half scowl, half curious expression on her face.

Missy led off. "Mr. Boston, do you mind if I call you Robert?" He nodded his head slightly. "I'm sure you've seen what's happening to Rapture. This isn't what we were promised."

Roxanne picked up. "Robert, a group of us have gotten together, from here and from other places in Rapture to try and get Ryan to let us leave. We think it would be helpful to have someone like you, someone who can take care of themselves to come along. In case there's trouble."

*They are lying to themselves if they Ryan's going to let them leave.*

Missy broke in. "You're saving us from that Burning Man impressed a lot of people here. And you being there when we try to leave will make some us feel safer. Could you help us?" The expression on both the women's faces was earnest and honest.

"No."

Be nice to help, but it was doomed. And he couldn't do anything that would attract Ryan's attention. Even if they could get the sphere's working, Ryan would just sink them.

Both women looked both disappointed and a little surprised. Before they could say anything more he continued. "Ryan's not going to let anyone leave. You read the.." *residency contract* "residency contract?"

"He can't really expect to enforce that!" Missy exclaimed.

*It's for "in perpetuity".* Elizabeth prompted.

"It's for in perpetuity and Ryan WILL enforce it. We're all buried down here."

Roxanne jabbed a finger at him with an angry expression on her face. "You sound like Atlas, you work of him?"

He gave her a look, she blanched and sat back in her chair. "Atlas killed someone very close to me. Don't talk to me about him." he told her in a hard voice.

Time to end this. He stood up. "Let me give you some advice. You're not leaving Rapture. Best find someplace to hide."

With that he started walking away.

Missy stood up and called after him "I thought you were a man!"

He stopped and looked over his shoulder at them. "I'm not a rube." then kept on walking.

*That wasn't very polite.*

*Think I was too hard on 'em?*

*Pft. Certainly not. They're fools if they think Ryan's going to let anyone leave.*

They headed straight for the elevators, Charles seemed to try to get his attention, but was distracted by the phone. That was good, really didn't want to talk to anyone else right now.

"Killing the Fireman..."

*Firewoman.*

Oh, for... "Ok, Firewoman, made them think I was some kind of hero."

*Why DID you stop her?*

They walked into the elevator and Booker hit the button for their floor. "Not much choice. Would have burned the place down."

*And why would you care?*

What is she after? "Don't want to move yet."

*Humph. You did the right thing for the right reason.*

"Don't make me a hero."

*No, but it makes you better person than you were, what many of the people down here are. That's a lot more important to me, to Anna, than you being a hero.*

The elevator dinged and he stepped out to start walking to the room.

"More important?"

*You can teach Anna not to make the same mistakes we did. No "hero" can teacher her that, only you can.*

"Hope I'm a good teacher."

-Elizabeth-

They entered the room after Booker checked to make sure the threads were still in place. He turned on the light and the phone rang.

"What now?" Booker muttered. She agreed, they both wanted some rest. He went over and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Boston, this is the front desk. There is a message for here for you and the people that left it wanted to be quite sure you received it as soon as possible." Charles sounded unhappy. She guessed he didn't want to be calling Booker, but felt he didn't have a choice. Someone was pushing to make sure Booker got the message.

"I'll get it in the morning." Booker told the clerk.

"I'm afraid the person that left it where quite specific in their desire that you get this message."

She could imagine the face Booker was making right now. "Give me couple minutes I'll come get it."

"No need to bother yourself sir. I shall deliver it." There was a click on the phone line and a second later a knock on the door. 'Guess being able to teleport has some advantages.'

Booker opened the door and Charles handed him an envelope. Booker went to reach for his wallet, but the splicer vanished in the cloud of red and black smoke.

After closing the door none to gently, he opened the envelope. Inside was a type written letter from the Prosperity Way Business Association or that's what the letterhead said. In it the requested a meeting with their representative at the most "his earliest convenience". She took that as "as soon as you get this letter." The subject was the vague promise of a business opportunity. Not much more than that.

On the letter was a phone number to call.

"Great. Might as well get it over with." And he walked over to the phone.

*You're going to call?*

"Yeah, probably want some muscle."

*Then why call if you're going to refuse?*

"Might be for something else. Delivering something maybe."

*Which would be a good reason for us to move around Rapture. How likely is it they want you to play errand boy?*

"Low, but never know unless I talk to 'em."

*And it's easier not to make people mad, than it is get them to calm down.*

"That's another reason. Bet this Business Association could cause trouble if they wanted."

He dialed the number and it was answered after the second ring. "Prosperity Way Business Association, how may I help you?" an elderly woman's voice came over.

"Names Robert Boston, I was given a message someone there wanted to talk to me."

"Oh, Mr. Boston, if you hold a moment, I'll connect you to Mr. Westheim."

Booker was put on hold for about a minute. Then the phone rang again and was picked up. "Thank you for calling Mr. Boston." The man on the other end had a slight accent, German maybe. I apologies about the rush, but my employers are quite adamant that I speak to as quickly as possible."

"Well, you're talking to me. How may I help you?"

"I think this is a matter best discussed in person. I'm sure you understand that confidentiality is important."

Westheim doesn't think the phones are safe. Could Ryan be listening in on phone calls? Wouldn't surprise her given all the cameras he was setting up.

"How soon do you want to meet?" Booker asked.

"You may choose the location in say, fifteen minutes?"

"Have a problem with the lobby of the Renascence, Mr. Westhiem?"

"None at all Mr. Boston. I shall see you there in fifteen minutes." Then he hung up.

*No rest for now.* she complained.

They left the room and moved to a location where they could see anyone entering the lobby and waited. They didn't see anyone that didn't look out of place and just before the appointed time, they walked down stairs.

Booker picked a spot where he could easily be seen from the main doors, but was a short distance away from them. Someone would have to enter the hotel in order to see him.

At the appointed time a distinguished dark haired man about average height, forty five years old wearing a neat grey suit with brown stripes and bow tie walked in. He spotted Booker and walked towards him. When he got close enough he held out his hand.

"Mr. Boston? Nice to meet you. As I said on the phone, I am David Westheim from the Prosperity Way Business Association. Is there a quiet place where can talk?"

Booker shook the man's hand "Nice to meet you Mr. Westheim. There's a place over here." He led the man to the same corner he had used earlier to speak to Roxanne and Missy. She wondered if Westheim knew about that already. Seemed best to assume he did.

Both men sat down and Booker started off. "So how I may I help you and the Business Association?"

Westheim smiled slightly uncomfortably for an instant. "Don't waste time, do you? Well, as you certainly know Prosperity Way lost Constable Wallford and Rapture Security has informed us that they will not be sending anyone to replace him. We contacted several private firms, but were turned down."

'Are they trying to hire Booker to be a security guard?'

Westheim continued. "Given the, demonstration of your.. ah, martial abilities, the Association decided that maybe we should consider someone closer to home."

"I'm sorry Mr. Westheim, but I cannot accept your offer."

The man put an encouraging expression on his face. "We would pay you well Mr. Boston."

"Sorry, but no. Have responsibilities that can't be put aside. Might be able to help if I'm around, but don't count on it."

"Is that your final answer?"

"Yes. Sorry, wasn't the answer you wanted." Booker paused a moment. "If you want to protect yourselves, count on those you know. You got a gunsmith here, buy some guns and get them to those you trust. Make sure they know how to use them, train. Find someone who was in the military if you can."

"I appreciate your candor and advice Mr. Boston. I told the Association it was a long shot. I will pass on your advice though." Westheim paused for several seconds, thinking, or rather pretending to. "There is another problem you may be able to help with."

"What kind of problem?"

"A leading member of the Association, Alison Mayhew, was spending some time in Fort Frolic and has been trapped there by the closure of the Metro."

"And you'd like someone to get her back here." Here is the real reason he was talking to Booker.

"Why yes. But it must be done soon. Do you think you can do it?"

*Malcom got to the Blue Ascot from Fort Frolic so we know one way to get there. Once there, I know my way around well enough.* She'd rather not have Booker go, but that didn't look likely as this point.

"Think I can get there and back. What's it pay?"

"A hundred dollars." *Not much money.* "And I'm told you have an interest in Infusions." Owner of the drugstore must have talked about it. They knew more about Booker than she would like, he probably liked it less.

"Yeah, find them interesting to look at."

Westheim smiled. "Well, I can acquire two of them."

"Doesn't sound bad, full payment upon delivery. And full disclosure, no surprises."

"Surprises?"

"Anything that might complicate my escorting her back or be a threat. Say an angry boyfriend or owing money to Cohen."

"Oh no, nothing like that." She didn't think he was lying, but sometimes people can be very good at it.

"Ok, need a recent photograph, what clothes she is wearing and her location inside Fort Frolic. Also can you get a message to her that someone will be there to escort her out? And need a written message from someone she trusts explaining what's going on."

"Well, um. I didn't.." Westheim seemed a bit taken back.

"Meet me back here in an hour with the photograph, information and the letter, ok." Westheim hesitated. "Go on, times wasting." Booker steam rolled the man so easily it was almost funny.

"I'll start right now, Mr. Boston."

As Westheim headed for the door, Booker turned to go back upstairs.

*Quite the commanding presence you have sometimes.*

"Not like you haven't done the same to me." He told her with an amused tone.

*Humph! I was just standing up for myself against a bossy thug!* *Is it a good idea to Fort Frolic?*

"Not taking time away for looking for Anna and two Infusions be mighty good to have."

*And it will keep the Business Association happy. I wonder if we should leave soon. These people are starting to know too much about you.*

"Don't know enough to be dangerous yet."

*Yet. And why are we going back to the room?*

"Want to change into the suit and get cleaned up. Need to fit in with the upper crust."

An hour later Booker had changed and was sitting down waiting for the Westheim to arrive with the materials Booker wanted. He had left the shotgun behind this time and now carried the Tommy Gun. Westheim walked into the lobby and hesitated a moment before walking towards Booker. A dark haired young woman followed him just a few steps back.

*He's punctual, but who is that with him?*

"Got a bad feeling about this." She had one too.

The girl with Westheim was about twenty years old, maybe younger and dressed in a dark blue pants suit which she thought was a little strange. Most women in Rapture wore dresses. She also had short heeled boots and there was a bulge under her left arm. As the young lady got closer she noticed her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She had big brown eyes and was rather attractive despite, maybe because of, her lack of makeup.

Booker stood up to greet the pair. "Mr. Westheim, were you able to get everything I asked for?"

"Yes, everything you requested is in here." the man held out a folder for Booker to take. "Almost didn't recognize you with suit on."

He opened it and quickly scanned the contents. There were three pictures, a description of the dress she had been wearing and a sealed envelope with "Alison" written on it. The woman in the photographs looked to be in her early forties and had a strong resemblance to the young woman with Westheim.

"How old are these photo's?"

"You don't need those." the young woman butted in loudly.

Booker put the envelope and the pictures into his breast pocket before handing back the folder. "Mr. Westeim, how old are the photographs?"

"The first one is just a month old, the others are from last year." The man looked uncomfortable.

"Hey! Did you hear what I said?" the woman nearly yelled.

Booker glanced at the woman. "Imagine they heard you in Arcadia."

The girl's face fell in surprise as Booker turned his attention back to Westheim. "You try contacting her?"

"I tried calling the payphone number she gave me, but it's disconnected now." There are a lot of reasons the phone didn't work and she didn't like any of them.

"And where is she in Fort Frolic?"

"She said she was in Poseidon Plaza, the Pharaoh's Fortune Casino, but she didn't know if she could stay there."

Cohen preferred the Fleet Hall and didn't go to Poseidon Plaza much. If Mayhew had stayed there it would be best for all of them.

"Thank You, Mr. Westheim. Don't know the conditions in Fort Frolic, so it may take some time before I come back with Mrs. Mayhew. How can I contact you?"

"I'll be at the Association offices all night. Just call on me there."

"Then I'll be going." Booker took a step, but didn't get any farther.

"Hey! I'm coming along!" the girl declared and started after them.

Westheim didn't like that at all. "Lisa, you shouldn't go."

The girl spun to face him. "Just because you're sleeping with my mother, it doesn't mean you're my father!" What A Little Brat! Booker gave quick glance to his right.

"Please, just let the man do his job."

"I'm going to help get my mother and you can't stop me!" Lisa had a defiant expression on her face.

Booker apparently had enough. "You're not coming along. Trying to protect two at once doesn't end well."

"I can protect myself!"

"With that .38?" He pointed at the bulge under the girl's left arm. "Some splicers wouldn't even notice if you shot them with that."

Lisa seemed a bit taken aback. She had the impression that Lisa didn't have people say "no" to her often enough.

"You coming along means that I would have to try and protect two people at once. Good way for someone to get dead."

The girl wouldn't give up. "That won't happen! I can take care of myself."

"You're right, it's not going to happen because You are going to stay, Here." Booker put some iron in his voice. He looked at Westheim before he walked away. "Hopefully this won't take long."

*Think she's going to follow us?*

*I would Be surprised if she didn't try. Was I that bad back then?* Sometimes it seemed like Columbia was a lifetime ago. Other times as if it were yesterday.

*Well…*

*Booker!*

*You didn't know better and I didn't treat you right. More my fault than yours. But that girl…*

*Doesn't have as much of a reason?*

*Grew up here, knows Rapture.*

*She may not understand what's going on.*

"Suppose we're going to have to tell her then." Booker said with a bit of a sad tone in his voice.

*I hope she doesn't get herself killed before then.*

End Chapter 38


	39. Chapter 39

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 39

-Elizabeth-

As they walked towards Fortune Avenue they talked about how they might convince Lisa she shouldn't be following Booker. They decided that the best place would be just short of the workshop. There were some heavy metal pipes that Booker should be able get on top with the Air Grabber and stay out of sight. When the girl walked under them he could drop behind her and give her a surprise.

Hopefully they wouldn't have to do it, but on the walk down, they heard someone following them.

*Dammit.* Booker cursed.

*I guess she's going to have to learn the hard way.* Why was the girl being so thickheaded? Something more than just being stubborn?

Booker got himself in position on top of one of the large pipes. It was a more cramped than they had expected. *Hope she gets here soon.*

Almost if on cue they heard footsteps below them. *Well, that was good timing.*

He looked over the edge and they saw Lisa walking beneath them. Booker quietly jumped off the pipe to the ground below, the Cat's Feet Gear rending this landing silent. He was now right behind the girl, who had no idea he was there.

She wondered how Booker was going to announce himself. He did it simply.

"You shouldn't be here."

Lisa jumped and screamed all at once as she turned towards Booker firing the pistol. He was hit twice before he reached out and took the revolver from the startled girl. She didn't think that the pistols rounds had done more than dent Booker's Shield.

"Calm Down!" he ordered.

Booker switched the gun to his right hand and shook his left. Probably burned it a little when he grabbed it. Lisa looked up at Booker with huge eyes and backed away a few steps before it registered who he was.

"I..I..I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." Her eyes got big. "I shot you."

"You're lucky. You'd be dead if I wanted. Or worse."

"But I SHOT you!" The girl couldn't decide if she was scared of Booker or worried for him.

"Really? Hadn't noticed."

"But you're not..."

"Said that little revolver wasn't going to protect you. Now, why are you following me?"

"I want to help! She's my mother, she's all I have left!" So there was more here than just a willful girl.

*Booker, I think we need to listen to her a minute.*

"Mind explaining that?" His tone softened some, but it was not overly friendly.

"My father died three years ago. Since then it's just been mom, me and Constance. Constance was my little sister, she went to school at Rapture Advantage Prep School. She was just nine years old."

*Sorry, never hear of it.*

"Sorry, got a little behind on current events. What happened?"

"Last month, January 8th, the school flooded. Some of the teachers, couple of the boys escaped. Everyone one else…." She looked half angry, half broken hearted. "Some say Atlas did it."

*A large number of children, girls, being killed just after the start of the Civil War?* It would be good cover for kidnaping them to turn into Little Sisters.

*Ryan?*Booker supplied.

*It's possible but we don't have any proof, so don't tell her anything. Would do more harm than good.*

"I'm sorry about your sister, but you're not helping your mother by following me. You're making it harder." Booker handed her the pistol. "Reload this and go back home."

The girl took the gun, then hesitated.

"Now." Booker didn't bark it like an order, but there somehow it was still a command.

They watched the girl reload the two spent rounds and walk back towards Prosperity Way. When she was gone, they continued on to the remains of Fortune Avenue and The Blue Ascot Apartment's beyond. The walk was uneventful and soon they were out in a Tunnel leading towards Tantalus Place.

Tantalus Place was dedicated to sports and exercise. Bowling, batting cages, basketball courts, soccer, tennis, indoor golf and more. There was even a fake beach with a lake. Next to the Tantalus Place was Ryan Stadium, the city's largest open arena. It was big enough to host both baseball and football games.

One day when she had been passing through from Fort Frolic to her apartment, she had actually visited the beach on a lark. It smelled just like Battleship Bay to her. She had immediately left and never thought of going back.

What she and Booker wanted at Tantalus Place was the Transit Hub. It was one of the largest in the city and had tunnels that connected to Olympus Heights, Arcadia, Fort Frolic and other locations. The level below was a major stop on the Rapture Metro and had half a dozen sphere bays with a wide staircase that allowed easy access to the Tunnels above. It was one of the few places in Rapture that she thought was well designed.

When they got the Transit Hub it was clear that there had been fighting here at one point that had left several pillars destroyed. Four Turrets had been set up to defend the place and it was patrolled by three splicers. One of them carried something that looked like a crossbow and the other two seemed to rely on their Plasmids and didn't carry weapons.

The Turrets and lone Security Camera were quickly Bypassed and splicers gave a look at Booker and dismissed him.

*I guess the clothes DO make the man.*

"Just people's impressions of the man. How much longer?"

*Not far. Just little ways from that bend up ahead.*

There were some people walking to and from Fort Frolic, but not even close to half the number she usually saw.

Shortly they passed Securis Door and down a short corridor.

*This corridor ends in a small display hall with two Tunnels. The one on the left goes to the Atrium. I hope we don't have to go there. To the right is the tunnel to Poseidon Plaza. That's where the Pharaoh's Fortune Casino is. I was only in the plaza once and I didn't stay long.*

"Not your kind of place?"

*Not at all. It was all gambling, prostitutes, strip clubs and bars. You should feel right at home.*

"Thanks." Booker said dryly and glanced to his left a moment. "What do you remember about this Poseidon place."

*It has two floors. The Pharaoh's Fortune is on the second. There are some stairs not far from the entrance.

They walked into the display hall, which was empty of statues for once. Cohen usually had plaster covered dummies with rabbit masks on in here.

They turned to the left and went down the short curved tunnel that led to Poseidon Plaza. When they entered the plaza it seemed darker than when she had been here before. People were hurrying down the stairs.

Then they heard gunfire and an explosion coming from the floor above. It would followed by the scream of a Big Daddy.

Sounded like some fools had gotten a Big Daddy angry. There was the sound of a drill followed by shrieks of pain.

Booker was moving up the stairs carefully, he didn't want to walk into anything. They had just reached the middle of the stairway when there was another explosion and the Big Daddy made an odd sound followed by the sound of something heavy and metal hitting the floor.

They make out voices now.

A woman "Got that Big Daddy!", then a man's deep voice "Get her!" and a girl shrieked "Mr. Bubbles! Help Me!"

*Booker!*

A Little Sister screamed in fear as they raced up the stairs. Booker got to the top and turned. At the end of the plaza were three splicers, one of gripping the arm of a Little Sister as she screamed for Mr. Bubbles and futilely tried to escape. His other hand looked wrong, like it was covered with ice. The other male splicer standing near the alcove with a Circus of Values carried a crossbow and had electricity arcing over him. The female splicer carried a shotgun and didn't have a Plasmid active. All three had cat masks on. On the floor around them were five dead splicers and a Bouncer.

"Let Her Go!" Booker commanded as he ran past the Rapture Records towards them.

The Splicers turned towards Booker and the one holding the Little Sister said in a deep, cruel voice "Kill him." The woman actually hissed at Booker before bringing up the shotgun.

Booker continued to run forward and opened up on the female splicer with his Tommy Gun before she could fire. This was trouble, Booker couldn't use the Devil's Kiss because he might injure the Little Sister.

He was hit by the shotgun and shard of ice that flew from the hand of the man gripping the Little Sister. A crossbow bolt just missed Booker and hit the wall behind him where it exploded.

Booker fired off a Bronco at the splicer with the crossbow, then turned back the woman. He went to launch a Bronco at her, but she charged forward with unnatural speed and slammed into Booker, knocking him back.

"Surprise SUCKER!" she yelled triumphantly.

Booker lashed out with the Air Grabber, but she jumped back firing the shotgun as his Shield neared the breaking point.

Booker backed up as he continued to fire at the female splicer. He was hurting her, but it wasn't enough, then he ran out of ammo. A shard of ice flew at him, but just missed. The next shotgun blast broke his Shield and the female splicer brought up the Areo Dash for another charge attack.

Booker decided to fight fire with fire and brought up Charge. Booker and the splicer slammed into each other at high speed. Columbia's Vigor proved itself superior to Rapture's Plasmid and the female splicer staggered back from the impact while Booker's Shield was restored.

Before the splicer could recover, he hit her with the Air Grabber and managed to activate the Electric Touch Gear. Booker took two hits from ice shards, but ignored it. Instead he focused on ramming the Air Grabber into the woman's neck which broke with a wet snap.

As the corpse dropped to the floor, he turned towards the remaining two splicers and immediately was hit by another ice shard. The splicer throwing the ice had let go of the Little Sister to use both hands. He threw two more ice shards that Booker was barely able to dodge and then the splicer vanished in a cloud of ice crystals. 'A frozen Houdini?'

The splicer with the crossbow was back on his feet now and fired. This time Booker couldn't dodge. The explosion blew down his Shield and injured him. She thought badly. She hated this, she wanted to help, even if it was just throwing Booker a First Aid Kit. A bolt of electricity from Air Grabber the struck the splicer, but had no effect.

"That all you got!" the splicer yelled.

Booker ran back the way he came, putting the railing and walls that surrounded the stairs between him and the splicer with the crossbow as he reloaded the Tommy Gun.

The Houdini reappeared ahead them and Booker launched Possession at him. It hit the splicer and dissipated. The Houdini grinned viciously and threw three ice shards as Booker fired the machine gun back at him. Only one off the shards hit but, it still hurt. The Tommy Gun's fire seemed much more effective this time and the splicer retreated in a cloud of ice.

Booker turned to the other splicer and just avoided another crossbow bolt fired between the gaps in the walls. He fired a short burst and lobbed a Devil's Kiss bomb at him. As the bomb exploded, he switched to Charge and started to build its power.

The Frozen Houdini reappeared in almost in front of Rapture Records and Booker unleashed the pent up energy of Charge Vigor on him. The impact smashed the splicers dead body against the wall.

Only one left now.

Booker took cover behind one of the walls around the stairway again and used a First Aid Kit. He leaned around the corner and saw that the last splicer was reloading his crossbow. Booker fired a short burst, but didn't make it under cover in time and was hit by a bolt of electricity from the splicer. Her vision and hearing turned to noise and static.

It cleared fairly quickly and when it did, Booker was firing his revolver at the splicer. The last shot hitting his head, finishing him off.

*Elizabeth can you hear me?*

*Yes, that Electro Bolt doesn't seem to have as much effect on the communication link.*

He quickly reloaded his weapons. "If we ever find one of them Research Cameras, I'm going to get it. Had to use most of that Anti-Personnel Ammo to really hurt these splicers."

*Where is the Little Sister?*

"Don't know. Couldn't have gone far."

Booker walked across the area, carefully looking. "Don't see her. Maybe..." They heard something move in the hole in the wall by the map of Fort Frolic. He slowly walked over, taking care not to make sudden moves. As he got closer they could see a Little Sister crouched in the hole, hiding her head.

The Little Sister wore a torn black and red dress and had blond hair. Then she looked up as Booker got closer. She knew her. The girl's face had been the last thing she had seen before she died.

*Sally.*

-Booker-

Did she just say Sally? He stopped moving. "This is the girl you saved from Atlas?"

"Elizabeth?" No answer. She must be in shock. She hadn't been ready for this. He closed his eyes.

"Elizabeth, concentrate on my voice. It's going to be ok. Just listen to me. It's ok."

*I.. d..B..Booker I...*

"Just stay calm, just listen to my voice, Ok?"

*I.. sorry.. I never, just a surprise. Ok, I'm better now*

"I'm going to open my eyes. You ready?"

*Yes, go ahead.*

He opened his eyes and was surprised to see that Sally was looking intently at him and had come part way out of the hole. She was clearly still scared, but not as much as before.

"It's Ok, I'm not going to hurt you." he told her in a soothing voice.

*We need to get her to a Vent. Or protect her until another Big Daddy comes along.* She still sounded a little unsteady, but better.

"Don't think we can wait. Sooner or later more splicers will come." He reached out his hand "Come on out Sally. I can take you someplace safe."

Sally backed into the hole again. Damn.

*Where's Sarah?*

"Sarah?"

*Her doll. She always carried it. If you can find it, you might be able to lure her out with it and catch her.*

"Better if I can get her to trust me some." He started looking around.

*Why not just grab her?*

"Picking up a child who don't want to be picked up ain't easy. Can't fight if splicer attacked either."

*I suppose you know more about that I do.*

"Learned the hard way. Someone I know can be mighty stubborn." "There it is." He walked over and picked up the doll from where it lay near the dead Bouncer. No head though.

*I hope she didn't lose the head again.* She sounded oddly concerned and slightly irritated about a doll's head for some reason.

A moment later they saw it and he walked over and picked it up. He looked around and saw people starting to come out of the record store and Sir Prize Casino now that the fighting was over.

He set alight his left and pointed down the plaza. "Move." was all he said and people hurried along their way.

Then he took a moment to look at the doll. "This plastic melt or anything?" he asked as he walked back to where Sally was.

*Yes, an open flame can get it to melt. Catches on fire rather easily though.*

"Don't need to get it too hot then. He made his index finger generate heat, no flame, just heat. Then heated up the plastic around the hole in the Sarah's head and placed it on the dolls neck. A little more heat and the doll's head was fused onto the body.

*Nice work Booker. Now Sally won't be losing Sarah's head all the time.*

He took a few moments to allow the plastic to cool and put the doll down about three feet from the whole. Then he backed up.

"Come on Sally, get Sarah. It's safe." The girl looked at Booker and slowly came out of the hole.

*Wait! Take off your mask!*

"What!?"

*Take off the mask. She knew Comstock and still seemed to recognize him even after being turned into a Little Sister.*

Well, don't think she's going to tell Ryan what he looked like. He took off the mask. "Come on Sally, Sarah's waiting for you."

Sally darted out and grabbed the doll and retreated part of the way back to the hole before stopping. She kept looking at him.

"It's ok. I'm not going to hurt you. You need to get someplace that safe. Understand?"

The girl looked at him with those strange eyes and clutched the doll to her. "Where is the closest Vent?"

*I.. I don't know, has to be close.* She sounded off, distracted.

"Sally, you need to come closer." He bent over and held out his left hand. "Take my hand, ok?" This was almost as bad as Anna when she got something in her head.

Sally took a few steps towards him then stopped. "That's good, just a little farther." He smiled.

She came a little closer, almost close enough to touch. "Come on, it's ok." He could hear people moving behind him. How long before one of them did something?

"Where's Mister Bubbles?" she asked innocently.

"Mr. Bubbles had to leave. He said I was supposed to take care of you. Get you to a Vent."

Sally took a couple of steps close then slowly reached up to touch his hand then jerked back. He didn't move. "Sally, I'm not going to hurt you. Believe me, ok" He looked right into her eyes. She reached up again and gripped his hand. "There we go. Now, let's go someplace safe."

She looked up at him with a smile and started to pull on his hand. He quickly put his mask one and followed her lead down towards the other end of the plaza. There were more people around now than he realized.

He heard the people talking. "Hey, he got one!", "Lucky bastard.", "What's he going to do with that.. Thing?", "All that ADAM.", "Who does he think he is? A Big Daddy?"

He drew his revolver, but kept it so that Sally could not see it. She walked faster, then started skipping.

More people where about now. Most people moved out of the way when they saw him, but others had to be warned off by him raising his revolver. Worse, he could hear some of the people behind him talking.

"We can take 'em.", "Taking all that ADAM for himself.", "He's only one guy.", "Hey! You gonna share?"

He could see the Little Sister Vent just ahead, but his instincts screamed he was out of time. He scooped Sally up and held her under his arm, she was surprised and didn't struggle. He half turned as he ran and fired right to the face of splicer with a club over his head.

He didn't wait to see the results and continued running for the Vent. He could hear people yelling and start to chase after him, but he had caught them off guard. Should be able to get to the Vent before he was caught. The splicers were all bottlenecked behind him, getting in each other's way.

A Houdini appeared ahead of them with a pistol, but vanished again as he put two rounds from the revolver into him. Someone started shooting and two rounds hit him in the back. Then up the steps to the Vent. He dropped Sally as gently as he could.

"Sally! Get into the Vent!" He yelled and swung around to face at eight splicers running up after him. EVE Low. Revolver Three Rounds. Outnumbered. Enemy bunched up between the wall and a really ugly blocky looking sculpture.

He brought up Charge and an instant later slammed into a splicer with a shotgun, knocking him back. Again caught off flat footed, the splicers where slow to react and only a one started shooting at him. He hit the Splicer with the shotgun again and got what he had wanted. The Firebug Gear Activated and flames exploded out, catching all but one of the splicers.

The splicer with the shotgun managed to fire once, but his Shield took the hit and the splicer died as flames consumed him. As the other six splicers thrashed around as they burned, the only one not on fire bolted, going for the Vent and Sally.

He switched to the Machine Gun and chased after him firing. Sally was half way into the Vent, but her legs still stuck out where the splicer could still grab them. He held the trigger down and the Splicer tumbled to the floor, dead. These splicers weren't nearly as tough as the ones from earlier. Then Sally was safe.

He turned to meet the attack of three burning splicers armed with clubs. A long burst took care of two of them, but left him needing to reload. He switched to the autopistol and took two hits from the one splicer armed with a pistol who was standing back.

He dodged the pipe swung by the splicer and fired three times at the one with the pistol dropping him. Distracted in firing on the other splicer, the one with the club got in a good hit, nearly breaking his Shield.

He hit him with the Air Grabber to finish him off. Even got some EVE and healed up a little. He looked around, checking for other enemies. Looked like two of the splicers that had come after him had decided retreat was the best option. Rest of them didn't seem inclined to give him any trouble.

He went back to the Vent to make sure Sally was gone. Thankfully, she was. As he turned away he thought he heard a very faint voice that said "Thank you." He went to the Vent and listened for a moment, but didn't hear anything. Wasn't even sure it was a voice. Probably just his imagination.

"Little Sisters here should be safer now."

*Uh, what, what did you say Booker?*

*Are you ok?*

*Yeah, yes, just a little... disoriented for a minute. Yes, the Little Sisters here should be safer now. *

She's been acting strange since they got here and it worried him. Best get the job done and be shut of this place.

He checked a couple of the splicers he had just killed, but only found a little money. Not worth the effort to check more. He started walking back towards the other part of the plaza to where the dead Bouncer was.

*Booker, Pharaoh's Fortune is right there.* she pointed to the casino.

"Yeah, I know. Going to take a quick look at that Bouncer."

By the time he got back to the dead Big Daddy, several people were already searching the corpses and the crossbow was gone. Damn, he should have picked it up earlier. The scavengers saw him and made sure to stay out of his way, but they didn't stop searching the dead. He walked to the Bouncer and studied it for a moment. As he thought, it looked different than the other ones.

Elizabeth noticed the same things he did. *This is definitely a more advanced model than the other Bouncer's we have seen. That drill is built to be used on people, not for mineral extraction as the other ones where.*

*Upgrading the suits for fighting.*

*They may be upgrading the Plasmids the Big Daddies use as well.*

He did a quick search of the Bouncer's corps finding 157 dollars, two batteries and a health kit. He went over to the Circus of Values Machine in the alcove and Bypassed it, wasn't in the mood for hacking. Then he started making purchases. Regular Machine Gun ammo to replace what he used, Pep Bars and Tea to build his EVE back up. It didn't have any ammo for his revolver and the machine listed it as a discontinued item. Great.

In a few minutes they walked through the entrance of the Pharaoh's Fortune Casino. Rows of slot machines with more than a few people still playing, to the right a small bar, several drunks and a bouncer. On the left, a juke box with more people around it drinking. Lots of neon and noise. Could barely hear himself talk. Most people didn't notice him, but one or two that did seemed nervous. Must have seen the fight outside.

A Security Camera watched the doorway from the floor above. He Bypassed it and continued to look around.

*There was a big fight right outside the doors and these people are still gambling?*

Didn't see Mrs. Mayhew. *Gambling's addictive. Lot'a people don't try to stop or even want to stop.*

*And some are in here to hide from what's happening to Rapture.*

"Can't hide forever, but some are goin' to try."

This place had an upper floor, hopefully she was up there. He took the stairs on the left side to the upper level. More slot machines up here along with pool tables and people drinking. Still didn't see her.

*Why don't you show the picture around? Maybe someone has seen her.*

"Most people don't like to be interrupted when they are gambling. Think it scotches their luck. And catching the eye of the bouncer would likely cause trouble."

*And that fight outside isn't going to cause trouble.* She rightly sounded skeptical.

"Happened out there, this place might as well be another world."

*Huh, guess that's a good description of Rapture.* She leaned against a wall near the pool tables as he moved further into the room.

There. Against the far wall by couch. Mrs. Mayhew stood being talked at by a man she really didn't seem to want to be around. She wore a rather conservative evening gown and little jewelry other than a wedding ring. She looked worn and a little nervous. He made his way over to her as he got the letter out of the breast pocket of his jacket.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Mayhew? Names Robert Boston. I'm here to escort you home."

He handed her the letter and she looked at it with a slightly dumbfounded look, then smiled as she saw her name on it. Probably recognized the writing.

The man that was talking at her didn't seem pleased. "Hey, mind you own business. The ladies' with ME!"

He took a closer look at the man. Almost tall as he was, bit on the thin side, dark hair, rather drunk. "You hear what I said, push off!" and the drunk tried to give him a shove.

He grabbed the man's left wrist pulling him forward. At the same time he rammed his right fist into the man's stomach, hard. The man hunched over in pain, but Booker grabbed by the collar and pushed him back and down on the nearby couch. "Why don't you have a seat, fella. If you're smart, you'll stay there."

He left the man trying to catch his breath and quickly went back to Mrs. Mayhew. "Think it'd be best if we left." Other people hadn't noticed what had happened, but that wouldn't last long. "Now."

She looked at him with a surprised expression and shook her head. "Oh, yes. Time to go."

The three of them walked quickly downstairs and towards the door. They were about twenty feet from the door when someone yelled. They didn't stop and were out the door before anyone could stop them. Once outside, they needed to get out of sight quickly.

"Other side of the sculpture." he told her. She was moving as fast as she could, but he almost felt like picking her up and carrying her. As they turned to go around the other side of the sculpture, Mayhew made a distressed sound and stopped moving.

He had forgotten about the dead bodies. He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of line of sight of the door as he apologized. Moments later he heard the doors to the casino opened as hew drew his autopistol.

"Where'd they go? Shit! Where are they!" The man cursed a few more times, then the doors of the casino opened and closed again. After a minute, he carefully looked around the corner.

The man was nowhere to been seen. A few people looked at them, but kept their distance. Mayhew looked at him a little nervously.

"Sorry about that. If you want, should he safe to read that letter."

Mayhew blinked "Oh, right." She opened the letter and quickly read it. "So David hired you." She gave a small smile that vanished quickly. "He said I shouldn't have come, but it's been the first time I've been out with the girls in four months. Then the Metro closed down and I didn't know how to get back home. They just left me here. Some friends."

"We got a fair walk back to Prosperity Way. Best if we started now."

She looked up a moment at him and smiled weakly. "Sorry, just hoping David would come I suppose."

He gestured in the direction of the stairs. "Probably best he didn't. Didn't look like much of a fighter. Rapture's getting dangerous."

She saw some of the dead bodies near the end of the plaza, including the Bouncer. "I guess it is." she said and hurried down the stairs. They headed for the exit and the quickly left Fort Frolic behind them.

End Chapter 39


	40. Chapter 40

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 40

-Booker-

Tantalus Place was just ahead of them now and there were few people in the tunnel with them. Hopefully it would be simple from here on in. Mrs. Mayhew was quite, only speaking when spoken to. No big surprise. Looked like she could use some sleep.

Elizabeth was just off to his right, but looked worried. *Booker, thank you for saving Sally.*

*Couldn't leave her to those splicers, could I?*

*And thank you for fixing Sarah.* Something was bothering her.

*You still worried about her?*

*I, yes. Worried about all of them. The Little Sisters. I thought the Big Daddies would be able to protect them, but they can't, not all of them. Some are going to die. Some... probably already have.* She clutched her arms to her chest and looked down, ashamed.

*You weren't God for all your power Elizabeth. Can't fix everything. None of the Little Sisters would have lived long without what you did.*

*I know. But I can't help feel that I failed them. That I should have done more.*

*If there had been anything more that could be done, sure you would have.*

They were coming up on Tantalus Plaza now. He turned to the woman he was escorting. "I need you to stay behind me. Was calm when I was here earlier, but no guarantee it still is."

"This is how are we going to get back to Prosperity Way?" She had brightened up a little. The prospect of getting home improved her spirits.

"Down through the Blue Ascot Apartments and Fortune Avenue. It's not going to be nice. Going to need a strong stomach. But lot safer than wandering about Rapture for hours."

"What do you mean, not nice?" Mayhew looked more puzzled than scared.

Might as well tell her now. "Fortune and the Blue Ascot are graveyards. Everyone there is dead and no one has buried them."

She turned pale. The thought of walking through piles of copses should be enough to turn any stomach. "Is that the only way?"

"Fraid so. But walking among the dead is better than becoming one of 'em."

"I, I suppose it is."

They passed through the Transit Hub without any problems. The same splicers were still on guard and there didn't seem to have been any new fighting. They tried to call Prosperity Way on several different pay phones they found, but couldn't get through. They left the Plaza and soon arrived at the Blue Ascot.

"Wait here a moment. I'm going to check ahead. Think you'll be ok?"

"I'll be fine." She responded, but didn't seem to be quite as sure as she sounded.

He advanced into the Blue Ascot listening for signs of life, but didn't hear any. He entered and looked around. Things looked the same. He spent a moment picking a path along the left side. Fewer dead bodies over on that said. He gently moved a couple of them out of the way to make a clear path.

*Think she'll be able to make it?*

*Hope so. Don't cotton to the idea of tryin' to find another way back.*

He returned to the woman. "Ok, I cleared a way though. Look down, concentrate on your feet or something. Don't look around, understand."

The woman nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Ok, follow me."

He walked nearly sideways so he could keep an eye on the woman as they moved across the floor. As he told her, she didn't look around and soon they were on the other side.

Mayhew leaned against the wall a moment and took a seep breath. Elizabeth gave her a sympathetic look, then tried to fix the red ribbon around her throat again. He almost felt that he should give her the Bird locket so she could put it back on.

"How can you just walk through… That so calmly." Mayhew asked as she composed herself.

"Seen worse. Learned to live with it." As bad as the Blue Ascot had been, Wounded Knee had been worse.

"I came to Rapture to get away from all that. From war. I saw London after the Blitz, lost my brother Bill in the Pacific. Ryan said he was creating utopia, paradise. No war."

"Humph. Ryan's idea of utopia is all about Andrew Ryan."

"Is Fortune Avenue like… that?" She was still a little shook up.

"No, that was the worst part. Ready?"

She took a deep breath. "Yes, let's continue."

*That went better than I expected.*

*She's older and knows things like that have happened. Her daughter probably been a different story.*

*You think she would have panicked like I did when the Founder's ambushed us getting tickets for the First Lady.*

*Worse. Think you're lot stronger than Lisa is.*

They came up on Fortune Avenue and as before he scouted ahead then brought Mrs. Mayhew through. Minutes later they were on the last leg back to the Way.

About half way there she asked "Have we met before Mr. Boston? Your voice sounds familiar."

Not the kind of question he wanted to hear. "No, haven't met that I recall. Moved to Prosperity a short time ago."

She was quite for a minute.

"I remember now. That so called "detective" from two years ago. No, you're nothing like him."

"That good or bad?"

*Booker!*

"Consider it a compliment Mr. Boston. He was rude, ill kept and had been drinking."

"I'll take it as a compliment then."

A short time later they stepped out into Prosperity Way. It was getting late and not many people were around now. Looked like the diner was closing up for the night.

"Here we are, safe and sound. Mr. Westheim said he would be at the Association office. Your daughter is likely there as well."

"I'm surprised Lisa didn't try and come with you."

"She tried. Was able to, ah, talk her out of it."

The woman looked rather surprised and little impressed. "Not many people can do that. She is so bull headed at times."

"Have some experience with stubborn young ladies."

*I wonder Ever so much who you could be talking about.* Elizabeth haughtily put her nose into the air.

They climbed up to the second floor, Mrs. Mayhew leading the way. Above the pawn shop one of the apartments had been converted in a small office. On the door was "Prosperity Way Business Association."

Mrs. Mayhew almost burst through the door and he followed a respectful distance behind. By the time he got to the door, mother and daughter were giving each other a hug and Westheim stood off to the side, looking both relieved and happy.

*Booker, I think we should wait outside.*

He backed out and took up station a few feet from the door, while the people in the office talked.

As he waited, he noticed a few things about the apartments. A lot of them had "For Rent" signs on them. He asked Elizabeth and she said that when she had been here before almost all the apartments had been occupied. Where were the people going?

Nearly five minutes past before Mr. Westheim leaned out the door.

"There you are Mr. Boston. Sorry about making you wait. Do you have any trouble?" He walked out holding a large case in his left hand.

"Just a drunk who didn't know when to back off."

"That's good. When you didn't call..."

"Tried, lines seem down."

"I've tried to make several calls as well. The only ones I was able to get through on were here on the Way." "Well, here's your payment, Mr. Boston. I hope you reconsider the position I offered."

"Not at this time, but who knows."

"Oh, and Lisa asked me tell you "thank you" for her."

"Tell her she's welcome. Good night Mr. Westheim."

As he made his way back to the Renascence he glanced into the case and saw two Infusions inside along with a small note. The note said that the cost the case had been deducted from the payment.

*How cheap can you get?*

He gave a small chuckle. Hadn't expected it, but wasn't a surprise either. "Guess the cost of the case wasn't included in the agreement."

*It's not the money, but the reasoning behind it.*

"Got the Infusions and got a mother home safe and sound."

*What are you going to use them for?*

"EVE. Seem to using Charge alot to keep my Shield up." Elizabeth was quite for a couple minutes.

*Feeling sleep. Night Booker.*

*Good Night Elizabeth.* Since she was asleep might as well visit the Kings Pawn. Then to bed. Had a feeling tomorrow was going to be another long one.

-Elizabeth-

AWAKE! **Dark.** Where was she? _Can't feel anything!_ Someonetryingtogetme! Can't MOVE! Where!? CalmDownCalm Down Listen!

Remember. Nightmare. Not. Real. Listen. calm, listen.

She couldn't see because Booker was sleeping. Anna must have had a bad dream. She could hear Booker breathing.

Strong, slow, steady.

She listened for some time. It was comforting. She felt safe. She never thought that just listening to someone breath could make her feel safe. Protected.

'Something a child would know. Something Anna knows.'

'No, not knows. This is what Anna FEELS.'

'If I feel the same as Anna, who am I really?'

'Am I Anna who thinks she is Elizabeth? Or Elizabeth who thinks she's Anna?'

She wished she could talk to Anna. Or even just know what she was thinking, experiencing. But Anna had cut her off and she had no idea how or why. The only reason she had was from Booker who said that Anna was trying to protect her for her sickness.

But was that the only reason? Or even the reason at all? Could Booker have been wrong?

What if it Anna wasn't trying to protect her? What if was Anna trying to protect herself FROM her, Elizabeth?

No, no, that didn't feel right. Knew it wasn't right.

Maybe she was looking at it this wrong way? How else to think about it?

She pondered several minutes. Booker thinks of both of us the same person.

Is that it? Are Anna and Elizabeth the same person? What if the names, the memories were separating her from herself? Creating a barrier, division that shouldn't be there. So simple, but so hard.

Anna, Elizabeth, they were both her.

Me.

She needed to start thinking of Anna not as a different person, but as herself. It wasn't going to be easy. She should ask Booker. She knew it had been different for him with all his memories of the other Bookers and Comstock. Still, he might know something that would help.

She didn't want Anna to remember being Elizabeth, not now. Maybe, someday, she might have to remember being Elizabeth, when Anna, when She was older. But then again, maybe she wouldn't have to remember at, could just remember being Anna. She would be happy about that.

'Time will tell I suppose.'

Starting to get sleepy again. She just listened to her Father breath. Strong, slow, steady.

She smiled and drifted away.

…

Morning. The world faded in a little slower than usual. She still wanted to sleep a little longer.

Wasn't going to happen.

Booker looked to have been up for some time. He was looking over the Air Grabber and tightening things up, checking connections.

It would probably be best if she didn't start calling Booker "Father" right off. She was NOT going to call him "Daddy".

Though Booker's reaction to that would be interesting however.

Hmm. Wasn't just the Air Grabber. It looked like he had been working on the heavy revolver and the autopistol. Ah, cleaning and maintenance.

*Take care of your weapons and they'll take care of you?*

*Good Morning. Revolver needed a good cleaning. You weren't up yet...*

*About done?*

"Just finishing up." he said as he started to put the Air Grabber back together.

*Going back to Point Prometheus?*

"Yeah, get it done and we won't have to go back. Ready?"

*Let's go.*

He was dressed in his workman clothes again and carried the toolbox.

They took the elevator down and as Booker walked across the lobby he asked *Yesterday, I hit that one splicer with some lighting from the Air Grabber…*

*And he didn't even flinch. I was a little surprised you actually tried that with someone who had electricity arcing over them.*

*Not my brightest idea. Neither was usin' Possession on the Houdini." he admitted. "Kinda forgot it didn't work on them."

*We should check the Gather's Garden. I remember seeing a listing for something called Electric Flesh. I hadn't read the description though.*

*Should read through all of 'em.* He told her but didn't seem thrilled by the prospect.

*We do seem to be running it a greater variety of Plasmids and Gene Tonics now.*

_Vandalism is a serious crime. Remember, vandals are Parasites. _

They went to the Gather's Garden and spent nearly ten minutes going through the Plasmids and Gene Tonics. One thing they noticed was there were fewer listing for "civilian" products like Slim Down or Fresh Hair. Most of Plamids and Tonics were for combat, hacking or manipulating security systems and Vending Machines. And the machine wouldn't accept money anymore. You needed ADAM to buy Plasmids.

Booker, her father, had just stepped away from the machine when they heard someone coming up behind them. He looked over his shoulder to see that it was Lisa.

*What's she doing here?* She wondered.

He turned around. The girl was dressed in the same clothes as yesterday. In fact she looked like she had slept in them. She looked tired, a little nervous and unsure. When she realized Booker was looking at her she stood straighter and tried to look confident.

"Mr. Boston."

"Miss Mayhew."

"Can I ask you a favor?" At least she's not making a pass at him. 'I could get use to him wearing that mask.'

"You can ask" *Be nice.* she warned him. "but won't promise anything."

The girl smiled a little. "I was wondering if you could give me some advice."

"Not the best for that."

"You seem to know how to fight. I was looking for advice on Plasmids."

"Don't." Booker's voice was hard.

"What? I mean..."

"Don't use Plasmids, Tonics or even Infusions."

"But You use Plasmids and you were paid with two Infusions!"

"I can use Infusions safely because of I nearly died learning how to use them. It's something you can't be taught. If you try and fail, you die."

He took a deep breath.

"My using Plasmids was a mistake. A big one. I didn't think things through. Already have some nerve damage and all I got to look forward to is more of it, scars... and maybe losing my mind."

Nerve damage? Did he say…?

Booker's intensity talking about Plasmids made the girl step back a little. "But, you can take ADAM and stop all that, right?"

"No. Just delays it. As time goes on, you need more and more ADAM. That's if you have the money to pay for it. ADAM is getting mighty expensive."

She was clearly surprised. "But didn't you just buy something?"

"No. Was checking to see what's out there, because people with these Plasmids are probably going to try and kill me."

"Why would they do that?" She really didn't understand. Or couldn't except it. It wasn't easy to see your world fall apart.

"Splicers go mad. You've seen the woman with the bloody baby carriage, haven't you? There are bandits, Atlas's people, corrupt cops, anyone who's desperate enough. Even friends can turn on each other when things get bad enough.

"Who am I supposed to trust?" She was looking a little lost and scared by this point.

"People that have proven themselves when things are hard. Trust your own eyes, not stories."

"Someone like you?"

"Humph. Did a job, nothing more. Try getting with a group of people who trust each other. Number's count."

"How am I supposed to protect my mother? You said my pistol isn't enough, tell me what *would* be enough if you don't want me to use Plasmids."

"You need a weapon with more power. A .45 automatic if can handle it. Might be able to improve that .38 of yours. Power to the People machines can do the job if you don't want to visit the gun shop. Look at getting a shotgun. There's more than weapons though. Try to think of ways to stay safe. Avoid splicers. Find a place you can hole up if you have to. Stock up supplies"

She couldn't resist. *Don't go following a strange man who talks to someone who isn't there.*

"Don't go foll... trusting people you don't know. Think 'bout what you're doing, how you're doing it. Avoiding a fight is a lot better than fighting, even if know you'll win."

Lisa thought a moment. "I guess I can do that," she said almost to herself. Then she looked at Booker. "You sound like you've done this before."

He looked at her. "I adapt quickly. Sorry Miss Mayhew, but I have to be going."

"Thank you for your time."

"Your welcome. Good luck." he told the girl as he started to walk away.

*Think you're right, we should start looking for someplace else.* He headed down the Way to the Securis doors and tunnels that would eventually lead to Point Prometheus.

*I'm not sure what choices we have for accommodations anymore with the war going on. And there's another problem. What happens when we find Anna?*

"Can't exactly keep her in a rented hotel room."

*I hate to say it, but she's going to need to be isolated, at least until she's cured.* 'Until I'm cured.'

"Even then have to make sure Ryan doesn't know about her or he would just try and take her again."

*Not unless we can find people that we can trust.*

"Not likely down here." They were in the tunnel now.

She waited a couple of minutes before asking.

*You weren't lying when you said you had nerve damage, were you?*

He sighed "No."

*Where and how bad.* She made sure it didn't sound anything like a question in any way.

He hesitated a moment. *Left side of my face. Was itching for awhile, then stopped. Now it's kinda numb. Can still feel, but not very well.*

*Anywhere else.* He Should have told her.

*Outside of left leg, ah, below the knee. Maybe.* He said it fast, trying to make it seem like it was nothing important.

*Are you having any other symptoms?* He didn't say anything, thinking. *Booker, Father, please tell me. I need to know.*

*Well, seeing thing...*

*Your hallucinating? That's highly dangerous! What if ...* He didn't act like someone with hallucinations. *What are you seeing.*

He laughed a little. How could this be funny?

*Seeing you.*

*You're seeing me?* That's why he would look around like he did! It was the same way he looked after her in Columbia.

*Who else would I see?*

*It's not real, I'm not there.*

*Don't worry, know it's not real.*

*Your seeing me could be an effect of the Plasmid.*

*Figured if it were somethin' with the Plasmid, you would have said something. But it's all in my head.*

*So where is this image of me right now? What does it look like?*

He looked at a spot about five feet ahead of him. "There. Blue skirt, while blouse, little bit banged up."

How she looked not long after he had broken her out of the Tower. If she were there with Booker, that's about where she would be walking.

*And WHEN were you going to tell me about this? Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?*

*Didn't want you to worry. Can't do anything about it, can you? Would have said something when I started to have a real problem.*

*Hallucinating isn't a problem?* She really couldn't believe him!

"Long as I know it's not real."

*And what happens when you start thinking it IS real?* That came out a little harsher than she wanted.

*That's what I worry about. When I find you, that I won't be safe for Anna to be around.*

*You're her father, why wouldn't it be safe?* Even as she asked the question she knew what the answer was.

*Splicers are addicts, worse than any opium fiend I ever saw. Can't stop, don't want to stop. What if I become like that?*

Might was well try to talk some sense into him now. *That is why you should get a little ADAM. It will fix the damage.*

*Only for a little while, right? Then I'll need more and more.*

They were nearing the Welcome Center now, soon after that they would be in Bounty Square.

*When you find Anna….*

*No.* His voice was hard. *Don't even THINK about that. Not going to use you to get ADAM.*

*She would give you ADAM willingly. I would…*

*Still be using you. No different than any other splicer, worse. No different than Comstock.*

Still worried about becoming like Comstock. *You will NOT become like Comstock. You are NOT him!*

*Not now, but if things start going wrong in my head?*

*Even then. And if you have enough ADAM, it will keep you from developing any problems.*

*Will it? Crows and the Firemen didn't seem right in the head to me.*

*But you're not them.*

*Could be, given time.* he said sadly.

*I used Plasmids too. I didn't develop any signs of ADAM sickness and it was two weeks."

*You didn't have your Plasmids when you went to Suchong's lab did you?*

*No I didn't. Atlas must have had some way of suppressing them.* Damn it. *And whatever he did could have slowed down the onset of ADAM sickness.* When she woke up from the sodium pentothal overdose she had felt terrible. Maybe it hadn't just been just from the overdose.

*Taken alot more ADAM then most splicers, bound to feel it faster.*

*You almost sound like you're giving up.*

*Not giving up, just trying a something different. Trading getting sick earlier for...*

*a more gradual onset of the symptoms and possibly pushing back the more server effects manifesting.* she finished. *How did you come up with that idea?*

*One of the other Booker's had a friend. Got addicted to opium, Booker helped him break it. All the time Bill swore it would have been easier if he had stopped using it sooner.*

*ADAM addition works differently, but still, your idea might work.* He should ask her about any medical issues first before deciding anything.

*Even if it doesn't work, not taking any more ADAM. Unless you think I can get some from Fink that is.*

*I don't think there's much chance for that.* Fink harvested the slugs directly and didn't use Little Sisters. There had to be some way out of this. She couldn't stand to lose him again.

"Those are worries for tomorrow. Let's see about finding you today."

End Chapter 40


	41. Chapter 41

Bioshock Infinte: Union

Chapter 41

-Elizabeth-

The walk back to Point Prometheus took longer than they would have liked. A quick stop at the hardware store for supplies turned into a long stop when someone tried to set the store on fire while Booker was still inside. Then, when they got to Reese Plaza they found a battle going on. A guard and what looked to be a Ryan supporter against three people in work cloths that she assumed to be Atlas's rebels.

Atlas's people were on the top level firing down on the other two. Everyone not involved the fight had already run for cover. Atlas's people seemed to have the advantage, but lacked the firepower to push it being armed only with pistols. The guard had a Tommy Gun and the Ryan supporter, guess he could be called the Ryan Militia, had only a pistol as well, but threw bolts of electricity.

This went on for a short time. Both sides were screaming insults at each other, claiming moral superiority along with calls for revenge. Booker was starting to get irritated with it all.

Finally Ryan's men managed to down one of the rebels. One of the other rebels, a man, grabbed him and started pulling him down the tunnel that went back to the residential area of Rapture as the third one, a woman, provided covering fire.

It was all over after that. The two Ryan supporters headed up the stairs, she thought possibly to follow the rebels. Booker just shook his head and walked up the stairs. It turned out Ryan's people hadn't been after the fleeing rebels, but had gone to loot the bodies. The two glared at Booker a moment sizing him up. But they decided he wasn't a threa and went back to turning out the pocket of the dead.

The turret guarding the Securis door had been destroyed and three bodies lay about. One of them in a Rapture Security Uniform and the others in work clothes. Well, she thought they had worn work clothes, it was hard to tell. Both had been badly burned.

They checked the vending machines to see if there was anything they wanted to buy. The listing for Heavy Revolver Ammo was gone, replaced by crossbow bolts. He was able pick 30 rounds of anti-personnel for the Tommy Gun at least.

As they started on the last leg to the Point, Booker was clearly not happy about the lack of Heavy Revolver Ammo.

*What are you going to do when you get low on ammunition for it? Stop using it?*

"Going to have to. Don't have many normal rounds left now. Got some Incendiary Ammo for it, but when that's gone..."

*You could use a different weapon.*

"One of those .38's? Rather not."

*There are other weapons. That crossbow or the grenade launcher.*

"Going to have to work on that grenade launcher to make it so it don't blow up before I use that. The Crossbow may be useful though."

They passed through Innovation Hall and into the lobby of the Point. Once there they investigated the vending machines they had missed the first time and Booker bypassing everything in the room he hadn't gotten the first time. They picked up some more Armor Piercing Auto Ammo and three more rounds of Electric Buck.

They took the elevator up this time, stopping just below the floors occupied by Ryan Industries. The first floor had the older style vents so there were no Little Sisters present. On the second floor the security guard confronted Booker as he left the stairway. Luckily they could see they used old style vents and Booker talked fast enough to avoid being shot at has he retreated back through doors. The next two floor had never been occupied, but the next was a very different story.

The stairs opened up on a small lobby that had been very badly damaged. Furniture had been broken into pieces, bullet holes pocked the walls, a gaping hole had been blown in the ceiling leaving a large pile of rubble beneath it, pieces of two Turrets and at least one Security Bot were mixed in with seven dead bodies.

Despite the devastation, it was easy to figure out who had owned this place, even without looking at the oversized sign over the doors. All over the walls where the remains of awards, news stories and signs all praising one man, Yi Suchong.

*About time." they told each other.

They stepped into the devastated room and worked their way to the large set of doors on the opposite side.

"Lot of this was done deliberately."

*The damage?*

He looked at the walls. "Pictures and such. Someone went out of their way to destroy them."

*I wonder Who would have disliked Suchong that much to do such a thing?* she asked sarcastically.

"Just about anyone who ever met him?"

*You better believe it.*

The corpses had already been stripped of anything useful with the exception of an empty EVE hypo. Before they went through the doors they walked over to a message written on the wall in red paint. "For Suchong" On the floor in front of it was an Audio Diary.

*I think I can guess who that's from.*

Booker didn't respond and hit "play".

_Atlas: A Visit To The Doctor's Office_

_Date: January 11__th__, 1959_

_Suchong, I came all the way up to Point Prometheus for a friendly little chat. Come ta find out you're not here! I want what I paid for and I mean to get it. Since you're not here, I guess I'll have to keep on talking to that pretty little lass who works for you. I'm sure she'll be quite talkative when given the proper encouragement. _

Booker's hand clamped down on the Audio Diary and she was afraid he would crush it.

*Booker it's over. It doesn't do you or me any good to get angry about it now.*

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Yeah, I know." he said sadly and headed for the doors leading into Suchong's Lab.

Passing through the doors they found themselves in a long corridor. Close to them where several normal looking doors, farther down larger doors with large circular windows similar to those she encountered in Suchong's lab in Artemis Suites and a corridor branching off to the right. At the end of the hall were the remains of a destroyed turret. Three dead bodies lay on the floor between doors and the along the end of the corridor.

First door on the right had a badly damaged sign stating "Office of Dr. Yi Suchong". The door opened easily to reveal a scene of totally chaos. Papers throw everywhere, books opened tossed on the floor, desk torn apart, pictures lay broken on the floor. Someone had even cut up the chairs with a knife and pulled some of the padding out. Originally this office had been very ornate and expensive but something didn't seem quite right about.

*Atlas looks like he went over this place thoroughly. I doubt we'll find much.*

"Maybe not. Atlas wanted his Ace, right?"

*Badly.*

"Might not have paid much attention to anything else then."

Many of the papers were blank or were business related. The books covered all kinds of subjects, but didn't look like they had been read much. One thing she knew was if a book had been well read.

*I don't think this was Suchong's real office. It's for show or business transactions.*

"Just what I was thinking. Nothing here for us." The next room looked like it had been for a secretary or bookkeeper. It had been torn apart the same way the office had. They did find three Pep Bars in one of the desks. They checked the corpses in the corridor, but like those outside there was nothing of use on them.

Next room was a supply closet. They found some lengths of rubber hose, film and a little kerosene. The next room had some damaged medical equipment, it took a moment for her to figure out it was an X-Ray machine. Three bodies in white lab coats lay on the floor. Two of them looked as if they had been tortured before being killed. The next several rooms were examination rooms similar to what you find in a normal doctor's office. They had rifled through, but there was only moderate damage.

The next was a laboratory and it had been heavily damaged with the floor covered with broken glass, papers flung around and spilled chemicals. Along one wall near a shelving unit that had been pushed over were a number of broken EVE bottles and one, unbroken one. Probably going to be the last one they found. Booker put it in his toolbox.

*They did work here, but not the important work like Cilia Canfield was doing.*

"Particular reason you're interesting in her work?"

*I think she might have been working on a cure for ADAM sickness or something along those lines.*

"Huh, be nice. Wouldn't put much hope in finding anything."

*I know, but it's worth looking for while we're here.*

They left the lab and went down the corridor that branched off from the main one. There was a set of doors that had been blown open with explosives. Beside the doors was a sign stating "Employees Only!"

This corridor contained only four more rooms.

*This Can't be all of it.* The lab in Artemis Suites had been larger than this and it had been a secondary lab.

"More hidden doors?" He didn't sound happy about looking for them. They both thought that a search of this place wouldn't take very long. "Right side or left side first?"

*Right.* She actually expected the hidden door to be on the left side of the hall, but didn't want to miss anything.

The first room was another lab that had been "searched" the same way the other one had been. They only found some kind of Chlorophyll Solution, some Alcohol and a Gene Tonic which Booker ignored. Outside the next room her father looked down at the floor carefully. It was discolored, like it had been exposed to a large amount of heat.

"Think we found where Canfield worked."

Looked like Suchong had the room cleared out after Canfield was "fired". There were just some furniture, desks, lab equipment with no trace of her work to be seen other than a piece of paper on the floor with her name on it.

*Looks like someone packed away everything.*

"Or tossed it out."

He had a point. Suchong would be the type to destroy other people's work. After stealing what he wanted from it of course.

The first room on the other side was not a room at all, but a short corridor running parallel to the main one with doors at either end. They tried the right door first and found themselves in a room containing a table all kinds of clamps and straps on it. The tile floor beneath it was stained a darker color than the rest of the floor. The left hand wall of the room was made of glass and she realized it was all familiar.

*Booker, I've seen this before. Suchong's Free Clinic down in Artemis had a similar layout. We need to get over to the other room.*

She explained as they walked over. *There was a corridor hidden behind the wall. The wall splits in the middle and can swing aside.*

When they got to the observation room they found a woman's body on the floor just inside the doorway. It wasn't too difficult to find the seam in the wall where it opened since they knew what to look for, but they couldn't find a way to open it. No switches or hidden levers to be found.

*I can't believe that Suchong hid the controls well enough we can't find it. They have to be here someplace.* This was frustrating.

"Maybe looking for the wrong thing." Booker said thoughtful.

*Wrong thing?*

"Instead of something hidden, something right out in the open, but still can keep people out."

She didn't quite follow what he was talking about. Open, but still restricted?

Booker walked over to a panel by the door that controlled the lights for the room and the observation room on the other side of the glass. At the bottom were two keyholes. He looked carefully at both of them. One of the keyholes didn't look like it had been used much. The other had several scrapes around it and the paint looked a little worn. That's what he meant. It was out in the open, but you can't use it unless you have a key.

She heard keys rattling as he brought out the set of keys they found in Canfield lockbox. The first two didn't work, but the third key turned with a dull click, but nothing happened.

*That should have done something.*

"Let's see what happens with the other one."

None of Canfield's keys worked in the second lock.

"Got more keys to try."

Booker got out Suchong's spare keys they had found down in Fontaine's. One of them worked in the top look but it still didn't do anything. The fourth key in worked and a moment later the wall at the other end of the room shuddered, split down the middle and opened wide to reveal the corridor beyond.

*We're in.*

-Booker-

As the hidden doors swung open he hoped that this wasn't all a waste of time. But Elizabeth had an interest in the place and he had no good reason to say no.

The doors finished opening and locked in place as lights down the corridor flickered on. Looked much like the corridor they had come from a few minutes ago. Big doors with large circular windows in them. Further down the corridor turned to the left and he noticed a light moving back and forth across the far end. A Security Camera. Would take care of it later.

There were four rooms here. The first one had a bed with clamps and straps on it. He really didn't have desire to go take a closer look.

"Suchong seemed to experiment on a lot of people."

*You need live subjects to test Plasmids on. I don't expect that anyone that was brought in here ever left here alive.*

"One way to keep a secret."

The next room was similar to the first, with the exception that the bed was still occupied. Poor soul had probably starved to death after Atlas attacked. One of other two rooms had a dead body strapped to the bed as well.

He went to corner and switched to Ghost in the Machine and leaned around the corner to Bypass the Security Camera. It hadn't been part of the building's security system as the others had. Now safe from discovery and Security Bots, they continued exploring. The next room had a normal door on it.

It was a large room with blackboards on the walls, four tables with papers on them and a desk at the far end. All kinds of formulas and sketches were on the blackboards. Ideas for new Plasmids he guessed, but there was one labeled "Vita Chamber".

He took a closer look and noted there where several formulas that he had seen down in Fontaine's near the Tear Machine. Down at the bottom was written "Fink is FINK! Break deal with Suchong! Stupid Man!"

*This must have been when Fink ended the cooperation agreement.*

Next they checked out the desk, none of the papers on top had anything interesting on them and the desk itself held only a battery. Shoved over in the corner of the room were a couple of boxes. He went over to look and found a note on top of them. "Stupid! Bad for Business!" He searched the first one and found an Audio Diary.

_Cilia Canfield: Beating ADAM Sickness With ADAM_

_October 2, 1958_

_I have a radical idea for dealing with ADAM Sickness. ADAM has a kind of memory. I am certain this memory can be used to reset the unstable ADAM cells and keep them stable, curing ADAM sickness. All that would be required would be a large amount of ADAM infused with the individual's original DNA being injected into their body. This would reset all the altered cells, making them just like normal cells._

_The largest problem is that in order for this procedure to work, the DNA must be undamaged and requires a large sample to work with. The easiest sample to acquire and work with would be blood, about half a pint would be needed. Of course this blood would need to be taken from the individual before they had started splicing. This greatly limits this techniques application, but it Will serve as a proof of concept that ADAM Sickness can be cured and I can gain further funding._

_This is going to make me FAMOUS. _

"You were right, she was working on curing ADAM Sickness." Only way it'd work for him would be if they had a Tear Machine and found a Booker who hadn't spliced. Would have been nice.

*Maybe when we find Tanembaum we can tell her about it. If anyone can come up with a cure it will be her.*

"Can only hope."

The rest of the boxes were filled with notes graphs and test results. The last box had several bottles of what looked to be dried blood in them. Canfield had planned ahead. Too bad it hadn't helped her.

The next room was filled with monitors and looked alot like the one down in Fontaine's. All the views were of someplace in Suchong's lab. Found a battery and two Shotgun Shell Casings, but that was it.

Beyond that was room was filled with lockers and bins for dirty clothes. He glanced at the contents of one bin and noticed they were stained with something that was a dark red brown. A quick search of the room turned up a Pep Bar, a thermos of old coffee, a rotten apple and one locker with a lock on it. The name on the locker was Langtree. He turned to leave.

*Aren't you going to break it open?*

"Looks sturdy. Best to see if we can find the combination first."

*You don't think you can break into it?* she asked in an amused tone.

"If I want to spend a ten minutes doin' it."

*Then let me suggest we try and find the combination. I'm surprised you didn't come up with the idea yourself.* Elizabeth's image put her hands behind her and gave him an innocent smile with the hint of a smirk.

"Humph." He pretended to be a bit grouchy, but he felt the opposite. It was another small step showing she was getting back to how she had been.

They left the locker room and started check the other rooms. The next room was a large chemical laboratory. All kinds of chemicals, beakers, Plasmid bottles and complicated looking equipment filled the room. He could smell the ADAM here and crushed any hint he wanted to use any of it. They found some Distilled Water and a piece of Rubber Hose before leaving.

Next was a small office with three small desks. One of the desks had a corpse in a while lab coat sitting behind it. A gun was in his lap and the wall behind him had specks of red all over it. On the desk was an Audio Diary.

_Sal Smithson: Locked In_

_January 26__th__, 1959_

_I thought I would impress the Doctor with my loyalty. Be someone who stayed when Atlas attacked. I saw what they did to Bret and Chris on the monitors. They only worked in the outer office, didn't know about this part of the lab. Why would they do that to them? What is this Ace they wanted to know about?_

_I can't get out of here. The Doctor has some kind of lockdown installed and I don't know how to shut it off. The phones are down, Pnuemo's busted. No food for almost two weeks. I don't know how much longer I can last. _

*Those spare keys you got from Suchongs desk had a key that turned off the lockdown.*

"Little late for the people here."

*Well, I don't feel very sorry for this one. He was up to his neck into what Suchong was doing.*

"That he was." He really couldn't feel sorry for the guy either. They found a wallet with some money, some .38 ammo and some aspirin in the dead man's desk. The other two desks had already been picked clean, probably by Smithson. On the third desk there was a nameplate with the name "Dr. Langtree.

*Maybe he left the number of the lock in his desk. It's within twenty feet of the locker, isn't it?* Guess it was.

He looked over the papers and the leafed the book he found. Nothing. He sat down in the chair a moment, imagining that he needed to hide something, but still have easy and quick access. The name plate. He picked it up and on the bottom were the numbers 7914.

*How did you know it was there?* She seemed genuinely impressed.

"Put myself in his shoes. Let's see if this works."

It did. Upon opening the locker and found a Gear called "Chamaeleon". "Standing against a wall and not moving will allow the wearer to blend in with the wall, making it harder for enemies to locate the wearer."

*Huh, not as good as the Peeping Tom Plasmid I used, but I think it will come in handy.*

"That it will. Let's see what else is here."

They looked through the rest of the rooms and found a few shotgun shells, some EVE hypos and a wall safe. It had been emptied of anything valuable though. They left the hidden part of the lab and went out into the other part. Once there they went to the last room of the corridor, the only one they had yet to search. The room was dark when he opened the door and as he reached over for the light switch he saw a dim red glow that changed to yellow.

He clicked on the light and looked around. There were jars and containers of what looked to be chemicals. Opposite the door were the remains of a Security Camera.

*This must be the storage for all the chemicals they used to develop new Plasmids with.*

He walked to where he they had the glow and passed a space where something had been torn out of the floor. He reached down and picked a small piece of rectangular metal and flipped it over. "ADAM" was the only word on it.

"Guess Atlas took the ADAM Suchong had stored in here."

*He couldn't find the Ace, so he made do with what he could find. It's likely that Suchong had a large amount of it here.*

"Probably made the attack up here almost worthwhile by itself. Must have been gallons of it here judging on the size of the hole."

*Enough to keep his army going for some time probably. Let's find that glow we saw and get out of there.*

They went over to the shelves and quickly found a partially opened case with an Infusion in it. He used it to increase his EVE level again. He figured that should raise the level up far enough for now. See about increasing his Health after this.

They left the ruined lab, making sure to close the doors to the hidden portion of the lab. Then it was back to climbing stairs and looking for floors with Little Sisters. It was two floors before they found one with Little Sisters vents.

This floor looked like it was an office of some type. There were not many people were here though, and few of them took note of him with the exception of one secretary who very smiled sweetly at him as she walked past, much to Elizabeth's irritation.

Then they waited for a Little Sister to show up. Just before she did there was a commotion inside one of the offices. Two men were arguing loudly and started pushing each other.

Then they activated Plasmids and were about to start fighting when a woman came out of an office and started dressing down both the men. For a moment he thought both men would attack her, but they both quieted down as started looking at the floor as she yelled at them.

A few minutes later a Big Daddy and the Little Sister came down the corridor. She was dark skinned and had short curly hair. One more down. They started hearing for the stairs to walk up to the next floor.

*I wonder how long that lady is going to be able to control those two.*

"Don't know. Could be a splicer too." She was quite for several minutes.

*I wonder how much of this city is spliced?*

"Not sure what you mean."

*How many of the people in Rapture are spliced. If supplied with enough ADAM or if they started recently it's hard to know if someone is spliced or not.*

"Not much we can do about it, is there?"

*No, other than be careful and keep in mind nearly anyone could have Plasmids.*

"Cheery prospect."

Three floor above they found more Little Sisters Vents and waited.

And waited more.

Anna took her nap and he grabbed a little to eat out of a Circus of Values in the Lobby. Was going to have to remember to pack a lunch for tomorrow. He checked the building directory and they did have a restaurant on one of the upper floors that went by the name "Edwardo's" but he wasn't dressed for that. Going into a place like that with his work clothes on would certainly attract attention.

Spent part of the time waiting talking about Anna and a few of the more interesting situations she had got herself into. More than once the image of Elizabeth covered her eyes with her hands because of something Anna had done. But she also smiled and even laughed a little.

She asked about some of his cases. Didn't take long to figure out it wasn't so much the case she was interested in, but how he figured things out. The process. Still trying to figure out how his head worked.

They saw two more Little Sisters, but still no Anna. One of the Little Sisters stopped and looked around like something was wrong. But the Big Daddy made a sound and then she shook her head and happily continued on her way.

It was getting near the time that Anna often stopped her "work" for the day when they walked past an office door that caught his eye. On the door was "Genetic Photogramaphy by Derrick Wildhelm" and a fanciful advertisement showing a man taking a picture of a woman with something that looked like a twisted ladder in the background.

*That has to be a research camera.*

"Guess we should find out." He pushed on the door and entered the office. It opened into a small waiting room that someone had tried to tear apart. On the right side a counter separated the waiting from the rest of the office next to a door. He looked around a few moments.

*"This isn't looting. Someone was just throwing things around.*

There was a sound from the back of the office.

"Hello, anyone here?" he called.

More noise, someone moving around slowly.

"Hello?"

A man's voice came back. "Hold you goddamn horses!"

*Well, that's not very polite.*

A man limped out from the back and stood on the other side of the counter. "I'm closed! Shut down! All over. Leave me alone." The man was in his late 40's and didn't look to be in good shape. Eyes were red, face drawn. Something bad had happened to him recently, probably lost someone close to him.

This was going to have to be handled carefully. "I'm sorry to have bothered you. I was wondering where you purchased your Research Camera."

"That? Why would you want one? You know what I want! I want my…wife…" His voice broke and he looked down.

"Sorry to have bothered you sir." Damn.

He turned to leave, but the man spoke up. "No, it's my fault. Why would you want a Research Camera?"

"Job takes me all over. Have to fight to get there sometimes. Camera could help."

"You're a splicer, why should you be afraid?"

"Humph. Not crazy yet." He turned to leave again.

"Wait." He turned back to man. "I'll make you a deal. I'll give the camera, but I need you to do something for me first."

"What might that be?" Never agree to something before you know what it is.

"My wife is… was…at home… excuse me."

"Take your time. Know it's not easy."

The man looked at him a moment. "So you know how it is." he said sadly, then pulled up a chair and sat down. "I was working when she called from home. Atlas was attacking. I… heard it."

*That's horrible. To have to hear his wife die and not be able to do anything.*

Booker didn't say anything as the man sat and thought for a minute. "What I would like are some things from my home. Pictures, the silver framed one from the living room. You'll know it when you see it. If the jackals didn't take it, Martha's… wedding ring. It's a match to this one." He held up his hand a moment to show him.

"I would go myself, but not with this leg." He slapped his lower left leg and it gave off a wooden sound. "Stepped on a mine during the war."

"Where's your home?"

"Athena's Glory, fourth floor, Apartment B3."

*That's part of Olympus Heights. It's a war zone now.*

The man dug into his pocket a moment before he brought out a set of keys and took one off.

"Might be worth something." He told Booker as he passed the key to him. "Least you won't feel like you're breaking in."

"This might take some time. Might not be able to get there at all."

"I got nothing better to do than wait. When you get back, I'll be here. Don't have anywhere to go."

"Not going to promise anything."

"Don't expect you to." The man picked up a sign from the desk and handed it to him. "Could you hang that on the door for me? Got nothing left to work for."

He went out the office door and hung the sign on it. It was a simple message that kinda described Rapture now.

"Closed for Business."

End Chapter 41


	42. Chapter 42

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 42

-Booker-

They looked around Point Prometheus for another half hour before Elizabeth called it for the day. As they started to head back to the Way, they discussed what they were going to do about Wildhelm's offer of the Research Camera.

*Heading into the most contested part of Rapture is not a very smart move.* She was walking besides him with her arms crossed and wearing an unhappy expression. *Even for you.*

"Probably. But if I don't get an edge on some kind, I'm going to be in trouble."

*You're better in a fight than anyone else in this city.*

"Splicers are getting tougher and there are lot more of them than me."

She went to say something then stopped and gave him an irritated look. *I wish you weren't right.*

"Believe me, not looking forward to it."

*But it's not the only way to get that Research Camera. You Could have gone and taken it from him.*

"Not a thie... not that kind of person. Be a bad example for my daughter."

*I guess it would.* She sounded oddly cheerful when she said that. *So when are we going?*

"Best sooner..." *than later. Right after dinner you mean.*

"Yeah. Think it will be quieter then."

*Really?*

"These people aren't soldiers. They'll think the same way they would normally."

*Going to work during the day and resting in the evening.*

"Still be fighting, but people might not be as on guard. What do you remember about this Athena's Glory?"

*I've never been in it, but it's just a short distance from Mercury Suites. Supposed to be fairly expensive, though not nearly as bad as Mercury Suites. Still, Wildhelm must have been doing fairly well for himself to afford it.*

"Now, he doesn't have anything but memories." he said sadly.

*You feel sorry for him, don't you.*

"He's not the kind that wants someone to feel sorry for him. Has his pride."

*You have an idea, don't you?*

"What makes you say that?"

*I know my father.* she said with a confident tone.

"Just somethin' to keep in mind. Wildhelm might be able to a help somebody."

*Prosperity Way?* She seemed more puzzled than offering a suggestion.

"Don't think I trust them much."

*Can't say I trust them much either.*

_Attention: A new curfew will be enacted on Thursday. Citizens found in violation will be relocated to Apollo Square. _

They walked for a while and he used the Chameleon Gear to avoid a pair of hostile looking splicers. Actually it worked a little better than he had thought it would. He had to stay nearly perfectly still, but the splicers walked past him only at a distance of five feet and hadn't see him. On the other hand, they hadn't been looking for him. Avoiding someone who was looking for him would be the real test.

They had just passed through Zeus Apartments when Elizabeth had a question.

*Booker, when you woke up back in New York after Columbia, what was it like? How did you know who you where? Who did you think you were? The Booker that went to Columbia, or one who never will.*

"Never really thought about it I guess." He knew she wasn't really asking about him. "Guess I'm both in a way. Person doesn't have to be one thing, can't be just one thing."

She was quite for several moments, her head down, lost in thought.

"That help?"

"Not the kind of answer I was thinking of…" she looked at him and smiled a little "but it helps."

They walked back to Prosperity Way and stopped at the dinner for some food. Elizabeth was on the opposite side of the booth, lost in thought. As he ate a man outside in overalls started arguing with another man wearing a welder's apron. Sounded like it was about someone both men knew. Or that was the impression he got through the glass.

Then fists started flying. The man in the overalls found himself on the ground with the other one standing over him. The man in the apron drew his foot back to kick the other one.

Damn it. Just wanted to have quiet meal. He was thinking about getting up to stop the fight before it got worse, when there was a flash of lighting. Too late. The man in the apron shook as electricity arced over him and his opponent scrambled to his feet as he drew a pistol.

Before he could fire the other man recovered and snapped his fingers at the man with the Electro Bolt, who burst into flame. Incinerate!

*Booker, are you going to stop it?*

"Only way to do that would be to fight both of 'em."

The man on fire thrashed for a moment and started shooting wildly. Other customers in the diner ducked as several rounds left holes in the windows and one nearly hit a waitresses.

"Not much choice now."

He quickly exited the diner just in time for another bolt of lightning to hit the incendiary splicer. The flames on the splicer with the Electro Bolt started to faded as he drew back his arm to pistol whip his shocked enemy. Booker hit him with a bolt from the Grabber as he rushed forward.

The bolt from the Grabber worked this time and the splicer with the Electro Bolt could no longer move. He slammed the Grabber into the back of the head of both splicers and was pleasantly surprised when both of the fell to the ground.

"Any ideas on what to do now?"

*Ah, not really. I don't think they have a jail here.*

"Guess we just leave them there then."

*At least when they wake up they shouldn't be so inclined to fight.*

"Until the next time."

As he walked back into the diner he replaced the spent battery. The other people cautiously returned to their meals and he sat down in his booth to finish eating with Elizabeth reclaiming the seat opposite him.

*I wonder what would have happened if you hadn't stopped that.*

*One or both of them would be dead. Maybe somebody else.*

*And that's why you acted.*

*Humph. Didn't want the closest place to eat getting shot up.*

He finished eating and headed back to the room after paying the bill. Elizabeth complained that they should have given him a complimentary meal for saving the diner from more damage. Given how them in Rapture acted, he would have been surprised if they had done something like that.

Back in the room he changed to a different set of work clothes and headed for Olympus Heights by way of Tantalus Place. He didn't take the tool box this time. Didn't think playing worker would work very well and carrying both the shotgun and Tommy Gun seemed like a good idea. He decided to take the leather shoulder bag with a spare jar of EVE. It would be useful for carrying the things Wildhelm wanted.

They got to Tantalus without any problem and took the tunnel that headed in the direction of the Heights. Frustratingly, they had to take a detour around a flooded tunnel into a small shopping center with a department store and eight small shops. The department store looked battered and not many people were around. A damage turret guarded the entrance and the one employee they saw carried a pistol. Two of the smaller stores were burned out and what had been a bank had everything stripped from it. The rest of the shops were either empty or locked up tight.

*What happened with the bank? It looks looted, but…* She knew something was wrong, but didn't know what.

"Looks like a run."

*A run? Of course, everyone tries to withdraw their money from a bank because they are afraid it will fail. With everyone taking their money out, the bank does fail and most people lose everything.* She paused a moment. *That's why everything is missing.*

"Yeah, people started taking anything they could carry to make up for what they lost."

*Foolish. Don't people know they won't be able to get their money because banks only keep a small fraction of their funds on hand?*

"Were a lot of bank runs in the Panic of '93. Think someone would come up with a way to stop 'em."

He turned to continue towards The Heights.

*It wouldn't surprise me if someone did and Ryan doesn't allow it because it involved some form of government.*

"Sounds about right. If that department store is still open when we come back, we should pick up a few things."

*Such as?*

"Mostly clothes for you, unless you want to keep that Little Sister dress."

*I most certainly do NOT Mr. DeWitt!* she told him with an angry glare.

He couldn't help smiling a little. "Kinda what I thought."

-Elizabeth-

She wanted to burn that Little Sister dress if she could. He was right though, he should start thinking about what Anna, what SHE should wear. Booker, dad, this was going to be harder than she thought, said she liked to wear boy's clothes most of the time.

She spent some time reviewing the children's clothes she had seen in Rapture. Compared to what they had worn in Columbia, it didn't seem they had changed all that much. The boys seemed a little better off though. Should think about getting a hat. Wearing one should make it easier to pass as a boy from a distance.

While she had been thinking Booker had been making his way up two floors to a tunnel that would take them closer to Olympus Heights. The vibration of a strong explosion shook the floor. They were getting closer.

A little ways on they walked out onto a balcony on the second floor of a large atrium. There was a ceiling to floor glass wall that looked towards their destination; Olympus Heights. They stood a moment looking at the buildings beyond to see the damage caused by the war. Several buildings showed signs of structural damage and a few had gapping holes blown in them. Lights inside the buildings would flicker and go out, only to slowly re-light moments later. They could even see occasional flashes of light through the windows of buildings that could be from gunfire.

The war was just as intense as it had been when she had given the Ace to Atlas.

The atrium below them had evidently seen its share of combat and was badly damaged. A few small fires still burned and she counted at least five corpses. But what was important was the glass tunnel that led out to the next building was still intact. They turned t o the left and walked down the wide curved staircase that would take them to the first floor and the exit.

Half way down they found a dead body dressed in the uniform of Rapture Security. Booker did a quick search finding a bottle of Hop Up Cola and twelve dollars. As he searched she noticed something about the back of his right hand.

*Could you hold up your right hand?*

He held it up without hesitation, palm facing them. *The other side Booker.* He turned it over.

"Not good."

The veins on the back of his hand were larger than they should be and a dark blue in color. *Does it hurt or anything?*

He went to massage the back of his right hand with his left. The left one still looked normal she noted with a small amount of relief.

"No. Doesn't feel any different. What is this? Seen other splicers with it."

*It's called "varicose veins". Basically you have small amounts of blood pooling in veins of your hand. Mostly it's older people who get it and usually on their legs. It's harmless though.*

"Good. Don't need problems with my hands."

Her father stood up and continued down the stairs. Once there they could see that the area had once hosted several small stores including a Sinclair Spirits and a Bistro. Both had been ravaged in the fighting. There were several vending machines, but Booker made no move towards them. He didn't stop to search any of the bodies he passed either and had the Tommy Gun out and ready to use. She hadn't heard anything, but her father was still on edge.

Turned out he was right to be worried. As he got to about half way to the Securis door, three splicers came out of the ruined Bistro. Two carried pistols and one held a shotgun. They started yelling the moment they saw Booker.

"Freeze!" "Don't move!"

He stopped moving, but didn't lower his gun.

"Not looking for any trouble. Just have some business to attend to." he told them.

"Never seen him before." "He ain't one of us." The one with the shotgun though a moment. "Alright, ki..." Booker fired and killed the man before he finished speaking the word. He dodged to the side as one of men with a pistol fired at him. The other one brought up a wind based Plasmid of some kind.

Booker brought up Charge and fired on the splicer with the pistol who went to take cover behind a pillar. The other splicer unleashed a Sonic Boom attack on Booker, but it had no effect. What? He held the Charge for a moment more, than released the Vigor, flattening the splicer.

Booker was switching from the Tommy Gun to his autopistol when the last splicer threw a small burning object. Her father jumped aside just in time and the small bomb exploded behind him. The splicer started shooting and hit Booker twice, not nearly enough to bring down his Shield. He returned fire with the autopistol hitting the splicer multiple times.

That was apparently enough for the splicer. The splicer took off running for the stairs screaming something about "self-preservation". Booker let him go.

*Ok, Booker. Why did you do that?*

"Let him go? Wasn't a threat anymore."

*No, that I understand. Just standing there and letting that splicer hit you with a Plasmid.*

"Performing a little experiment." he told her as he searched the dead splicer who had attacked him with the Sonic Boom.

*With the Charge Vigor? Down in Fontaine's the same thing happened, didn't it. You were building up Charge and the Sonic Boom Plasmid didn't affect you. You were testing that?*

The corpse didn't have anything, so they moved on to the one with the shotgun.

"Yep. Seems that Charge absorbs such attacks. Least when I have it up."

*Not the safest way to perform an experiment.* He really shouldn't take chances like that. What if he had been wrong?

"Wasn't in any real danger. Shields a lot stronger than before."

*But your Shield doesn't protect you from falls or you being slammed into something.*

"Guess that could have been a problem." he admitted a little sheepishly as he searched the splicer he had killed finding only a few dollars.

*You're just luck it worked.* she scolded.

"Did work though." he said as he walked to the vending machines.

He bypassed a Circus of Values and bought some tea to replace the EVE he had used, then it was out to the Securis door and through the Tunnel to the next building. Once there they only had to Bypass a Turret and kill a Thuggish Splicer armed with a golf club.

They made their way to the bottom floor where they found a Power to the People machine which he used to reduce the recoil of the Tommy Gun. Then it was out into a large Tram Tunnel. The Tram Tunnel was a lot larger than the foot tunnels they had been using and were wide enough for two tram tracks and a walkway that ran between them. Like the smaller Tunnels they were made mostly of glass so they could see the buildings that surrounding them.

There had been a lot of fighting in the Tram Tunnel and it had been recent. Booker thought it had been within the past day. They could see a burned out hulk of tram car further down so they started walking. As they traveled they passed piles of sandbags and a few wooden barriers and more than a few dead bodies.

Booker didn't stop to loot the corpses, but did pick up a Tommy Gun to replenish the ammo he used. He picked up a couple rounds of Exploding Buck and fifteen of Anti-Personnel Ammo that had been left lying around. Easy to forget about such things while in a fight.

There was a bend in the Tunnel with a tram car tipped over on its side that half blocking the Tunnel. As they got closer a man and woman who were leaning on each other walked out from behind it. Both looked as if they had been in quite a few fights and their eyes looked empty. They didn't react to Booker and kept on slowly walking down the Tunnel. She wondered for a moment if they had even seen Booker.

*Looks like they don't want to fight anymore.*

"Fighting can kill a person in more than one way. For their sake, hope no one noticed them."

*You don't think that some of Atlas's people would do something to them.*

"Maybe not openly, be bad for moral and undercut his support. But "something" could happen to them and Atlas could blame Ryan's people for it."

*Sounds like something he would do. Fontaine demanded loyalty from his subordinates, but never felt any loyalty to them in return.*

They walked for a short time encountering a tram stop. The doors to the building the stop had serviced had been closed off with metal gates. She wondered how long they would last if Atlas's people really wanted to break in. Up ahead there was another bend in the Tram Tunnel and as they got closer they heard weapons firing.

Staying low, Booker moved along one side of the Tunnel on the tram tracks. As they got closer they could hear shouting and make out machine gun fire along with the Rivet Gun of a Big Daddy. He moved faster after that.

Quickly they come upon the fight itself. Five men were attacking a Rosie further down the Tunnel. The Rosie was shooting at a sixth man who was much closer to him than the others. Something was odd about him, like he was surrounded by wind. He was screaming "Hurry up and kill it!"

It took a moment to realize that it was a Plasmid called Air Shield. It protected the person using it from most attacks, but it was hard to move and you couldn't do anything else. Not one of the better Plasmids in her opinion, but someone had found a good use for it. The man with the Air Shield was acting as a target of the Big Daddy to keep him distracted from the other people attacking him. This all had been carefully choreographed.

She didn't see the Little Sister the Rosie must be protecting, but she suspected that the girl was behind a makeshift barrier a short distance in back of the Big Daddy. Yes, she looked over the top of the barrier and quickly hid again.

Before she could ask her father to help the Big Daddy, he quickly moved up behind the closest man firing on the Rosie and used the blades of the Air Grabber to slice the man's throat. She couldn't help but make a small surprised sound.

Booker quickly moved on a killed a woman that was in the process of shooting fireballs at the battered Big Daddy. He was headed towards the next splicer when his target noticed something was wrong and turned.

"What the hell?" the splicer shouted as Booker opened fire with his Tommy Gun.

Booker's Shield protected him as the Splicer fired back, but the splicer refused to go down. Booker fired off a bolt of electricity at the Splicer which stunned him, allowing Booker to quickly finish him.

As the third attacker fell, the remaining two attackers started shooting at Booker. He turned and used Bucking Bronco on them. As they thrashed around Booker dispatched both of them. One died so quickly she didn't think he was a splicer.

The splicer using the Air Shield had his attention fully taken up by the Big Daddy and hadn't noticed what has happening behind him.

"Hey! Hurry up! I'm running out of EVE!" he called.

A moment later "What the HELL! Why aren't you..." he stopped as the Rosie tossed a grenade at him which exploded, but still didn't injure him."

"Help! SHOOT! What are you doing?!" The man was panicking now. Booker just stood back and watched.

The Air Shield finally faded away and the man screamed in fear as the rivets from the Big Daddy's gun struck him down. After the splicer fell the Rosie turned towards Booker, but didn't act hostile. There must have been enough left of the man left inside there to realize that her father had helped him. After nearly a minute a Little Sister in a battered green dress came out from behind the makeshift barrier.

The girl walked over to the Big Daddy. "Aw, Mr Bubbles is hurt. I can make you feel aaall better."

The girl turned around the giant needle she carried and jabbed it into her own arm and drew out some ADAM infused blood.

*What is she doing?!* Booker asked. His tone both puzzled and revolted.

*Big Daddies need the ADAM from the Little Sisters to stay alive.*

They watched at the Little Sister stabbed the needle in Rosie and injected him with the ADAM taken from her body.

*Injections like that also will heal a Big Daddy of his injuries. I suppose it's a little like you and me in Columbia. You would do the fighting and protect me while I helped heal your injuries and keep you supplied with ammunition.*

The Little Sister took the needle out of her protector and looked around.

"ADAM! Mr. Bubbles!" she cried and pointed at a nearby dead splicer.

As she started to go to work Booker looked around the Little Sister and the Big Daddy a moment. Not enough room to get past safely. Booker reloaded the Tommy Gun and checked two of the dead splicers. The first one had Armor Piercing Ammo loaded in his Tommy Gun and had over one hundred dollars on him along with a shortwave radio. The other had normal ammo in his weapon and seventy dollars.

"Aw, this Angel looks sad, Mr. B." the girl said as she stabbed a second corpse to start draining the blood.

Booker hadn't even tried to disable a single one of these people. He had figured out something she hadn't about these people. *Why did you make sure all these people died? You could have easily knocked out the first two out.*

"These weren't like the ones at Fort Frolic yesterday. They were organized and had a plan to take down that Big Daddy." He walked over to another of the dead bodies.

*This one doesn't look like a splicer.*

"Don't think he is." He did a quick search of body and found eighty dollars.

*That's a lot of money for people in Rapture these days. You think these people are doing this for money?*

"Don't think they're mercenaries, but Atlas might be giving people who get a Little Sister a reward." His voice was cold.

*These people killed at least one Big Daddy already and took the Little Sister.*

"Yeah."

They both knew exactly what would happen to a Little Sister that fell into Atlas's hands.

Behind them the shortwave radio came to life, there was a voice, but it was full of static. They went over to the radio and her father adjusted the frequency a little to clear up the signal.

+_Larkin, can you hear me, mate? Have you gotten that Little Sister yet?_\+ The voice had an Irish accent and belonged to someone she hated almost as much as Comstock.

Atlas.

Booker pressed the transmit button. What was he doing?

In the same Irish accent he had used before, he spoke into the radio. "Sorry, friend. But ye Mr. Larkin is in a bit of a bad way right now."

+_Who's this? Whot's happen' over there?_+

Oh, she wanted SO much to have Booker give that bastard a message from her, but she knew she couldn't. Saying the wrong thing could threaten Sally and the other Little Sister's eventual freedom.

"Oh, jus someone passin' by. As for wut happened to ye Mr. Larkin, seem he got one o' them Big Daddies mad at him. Not a pretty picture I must say."

+_Then put someone else on!_+

"Fraid none else here other than myself. None still breathin that is."

+_Can you tell me what happened? It would be a help and I can make it worth somethin' to ya._+

"Can't say what happened, but whatever ye Mr. Larkin did, it didn't work. Need to be goin' now."

+_Wait, tell me more!_+

Booker dropped the shortwave on the ground and slammed his foot down, shattering the into half a dozen pieces.

"Bout as close as I'll get to doing it for real I guess." he said in a disappointed tone.

*You talked to Atlas to try and confuse him.*

"Yeah, that plan Larkin was usin' worked."

*If you hadn't come along they probably would have taken the Little Sister. So you told Atlas the plan didn't work.*

"Right. Hopefully make him think twice about using it again."

*I hope you're right.*

The Little Sister had finished harvesting the corpses and started walking jauntily in their general direction. The Rosie shrugged his shoulders and slowly followed behind. Booker moved to the side of the Tram Tunnel to let them pass.

"I'm a good girl, Mr. B!"

'I hope she doesn't remember any of this.'

"Two times six is chicken, Mr. B!"

"Let's go." Booker's voice had a hint of worry in it. He probably didn't realize it was there. "Know where this Tunnel will take us?"

*This Tunnel will take us to Olympus Central Square. From there we should be able to get to Athena's Glory.*

"Did you have to say "should"?" Booker asked in a slightly pained voice.

End Chapter 42


	43. Chapter 43

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 43

-Elizabeth-

They continued up the Tram Tunnel, which for some reason she had never figured out, had a fairly steep incline near the end that went up about twenty feet to where the tram would stop. The whole city had been built from scratch. One would think that they would have designed things so that a tram line stayed level for its entire length.

They saw a few other people. Several of them scrambled for cover when they saw Booker. Many of them had suitcases with them or carried boxes. One person was even dragging a trunk on a luggage cart. It was all so familiar. People heading for someplace, *anyplace* Atlas's rebels weren't.

The Tram Tunnel leveled out and they walked into the entrance to the Olympus Central Square. They had to go around the left side of the wall that separated the Tunnel from the Square as the right side was blocked by a collapsed ceiling. The roof on the other side was damaged and didn't look all that stable to her either. They could hear sounds of heavy fighting echoing in the distance.

Her father was more cautious now. He would move up a sort distance staying up against a wall and listen. When he felt safe, he moved up farther. They got to the corner and he looked around it. To the right was a battered Gather's Garden. Just ahead of them was a large trunk tipped over on its side with clothes spilled everywhere. Partially covered by a dress, was a Gear.

Booker glanced at it, but didn't spend much of his attention on it. He was looking for enemies ahead of them, but all they saw the ruins of the Central Square Bistro, dead bodies and signs of flooding in the stairwells at one corner of the bistro. Carefully he advanced forward, picked up the Gear and withdrew back around the corner to examine it.

It was called "Machine Master" and made hacking easier by reducing the number of Alarm Tiles and Overload Tiles by half.

*I guess it could be useful if you don't want to use the Bypass Plasmid.*

Booker just made a noncommittal sound and looked back around the corner. "Which way to Athena's Glory?"

*To the right.*

They entered the Square and started working their way towards the right.

"What's the other side of the bistro?"

*To the left is a Tram Tunnel that leads to Mercury Suites.* She had to pause a moment and visualized the inside of the building in her mind. *There's a tunnel that leads to Apollo Square opposite us.*

"Explains the damage." This was a direct route from Apollo Square to Olympus Heights and both sides would want to control it. As he moved to the right he looked into the bistro and noticed an El Ammo Bandito against the back wall. They could look at it later.

They heard something on the other side of the bistro. Voices. Booker flattened himself against the wall and the Chameleon Gear blended him into it.

"Hey, did you seem that cop go down? Bang, right in the HEAD!" a woman said happily.

A man started singing. "Cop go down, cop go down, cop go…" The singing stopped abruptly with the sound of someone being hit.

"Hey, why didja do that, Willy?" the man who had been singing asked in a hurt voice.

Three people came into view on the other side of the square. A woman in coveralls with a bolt action hunting rifle, a man with a shotgun who was rubbing his jaw and a second burly man holding a Tommy Gun that must be Willy.

Willy shot back. "Cause I can't stand your singing, that's why!"

The woman intervened "Knock it off you two or I'll shoot you next." she coldly told them as they walked to the exit that led to Athena's Glory.

"Sorry, Tammy." both men said at the same time.

All three of them were splicers. The flesh on the woman's face was starting to sag on the left side. The singer was losing his hair and had some kind of growth on his forehead above his right eye. Willy wore a battered mask that looked like part of a seashell, but what skin they could see was blotchy and his right foot seemed to be trying to grow out of his shoe.

*Great, going to have to follow them.* Booker said sourly.

The three walked around the corner and out into the area beyond. Booker followed, keeping out of sight and tracking the splicer's location by the noise they made and their voices. The Peeping Tom Plasmid would have been a real help right about now. Booker glanced at the right side of the entrance only to see that it was blocked by a pile of sandbags. No way to get on the splicers flank.

_Ignore the lies of Atlas and his Parasites. Rapture is on the rise._

"Why we keep coming down here anyway?" the singer asked.

"Gotta keep an eye on those little bitches." The woman responded.

"Come on Tammy, there's nobody left 'cept the ones hiding up top."

"Them little bitches got to come down some time and when they do I want 'em." Tammy said viciously.

"I know what you're here for Mick. You just wants a piece of ass that ain't spliced, right Mick? Think you're gonna get your hands on one of 'em don't ya." Willy asked with a cruel mocking tone in his voice. It was quiet for a few moments and the sound of someone being hit was repeated, this time it was followed by the sound of someone falling to the ground.

"Goddamn it! Whatcha do that for?" Mick asked in a surprised voice.

Willy yelled "You ANSWER me when I ask you a question you little piece of...!"

Again the sound of someone being hit accompanied with a sharp "Oof!" but it was different this time. Harder. Not someone's fist this time.

Booker went to the end of the wall and carefully looked around it. The three splicers were part way down the Tram Tunnel on the left hand side. Tammy had the barrel of the rifle stuck in Willy's mouth and Mitch was on the ground nearby rubbing his jaw.

"I told you to SHUT UP!" the woman screamed in Willy's face. "Or so help me I WILL pull the trigger, you understand me?!"

Willy nodded his head as emphatically as he could.

*Humph. And she calls other people "bitches".*

Booker could watch them safely at the moment and there was plenty of cover further down on the center walkway of the tunnel. Near the top was a small carved pillar that had water flowing down it, then a newsstand, beyond that a Vita Chamber. Further down there was something that looked like it was intended for water drainage and a support column for the glass roof above.

The problem was getting to the pillar. There was a wide gap between the corner of the wall they were behind and the pillar. Until the splicers turned attention back down the tunnel, they would see Booker if he tried to move.

Just had to wait, but she didn't think it would be a long one.

The splicers started sorting themselves out and Booker took a moment to look around the Tram Tunnel a little more. Like the other Tram Tunnels it was made of glass and metal that arched far above their heads. He looked hard further down, but couldn't see much more because of the sharp downward incline of the tunnel.

The splicers finally started walking down the tunnel again and her father moved to the newsstand and down the right hand side of the tunnel. The tunnel didn't end at the building, but continued through it. A station inside Athena's Glory maybe?

They were about even with the Vita Chamber when came a loud rifle shot followed by the Tommy Gun. Not shooting at Booker. Who then? Firing down the tunnel?

"Ha! Told you those little bitches had to come down!" Tammy happily proclaimed.

Then there was the sound gunfire from down the tunnel and bullets started hitting the upper part of the tunnel. Booker had his heavy revolver ready and started backing up the tunnel away from the splicers.

Tammy sneered "Those bitches can't hit shiOW! That bitch! That bitch SHOT me!"

*Couldn't happen to a nicer person.* They agreed.

"Get down Tammy!" Willy said as they heard the bolt on the rifle worked.

Booker was far enough back up the tunnel that he was able to take position a behind a trash can. Down the tunnel the three splicers were taking cover behind the support pillar and inside the drainage area as they fired down into the building and bullets came flying back at them. As he started to duck back down they noticed an Audio Diary had been thrown into the trash can. Booker carefully took it out, probably going to listen to later.

The concern right now was the three splicers.

*What do you want to do?* He asked her.

*You can't wait here all night as they fight it out. And after seeing how they act, I wouldn't be at all bothered by them suffering from some very painful headaches.*

*Be happy oblige. Problem is, how?*

*With that fence around the water drainage area I don't see how you can get close to them without them seeing you.* The gunfire from the building seemed to be slacking off.

*Water? Think that might be a sewer. Doesn't help getting...close.* As he spoke he looked at the bottom of the support column and followed it up. *You think…?*

*Yes, those structural supports up there look to be steel.* They had both gotten a little of the habit of looking for things that the Air Grabber could hook onto.

As her father switched to the shotgun the gunfire from further down the tunnel stopped, but the splicers didn't stop shooting.

Booker picked a place on one of the overhead support beams and jumped up. He hung for a moment to reorient himself and then dismounted behind Mitch. A moment later Mitch was unconscious and Booker moved up behind Willy.

"Shit!" Tammy exclaimed just Booker hit Willy with the Air Grabber. "They got away and I didn't even kill ONE of them!"

As Willy fell, the female splicer turned and looked back. Seeing Booker she swore and brought the rifle around as he brought up the shotgun. Both fired at the same time.

Booker's Shield broke, but she couldn't tell had badly he was injured. Her father didn't pause and fired the shotgun twice more, killing the splicer. He quickly reloaded and used a First Aid Kit.

*Well, two out of three isn't bad.*

"Not really bothered by number three here." Booker said without regret.

She had to admit the woman's death didn't bother her either. She knew it should, but after seeing how the splicer acted, she couldn't work up any sympathy for her.

Booker picked up the hunting rifle and looked it over a minute. "Too bulky." he said as he put it to the side. He did a quick search finding some money, a Pep Bar, orange, a EVE Hypo and replaced the shotgun ammo he used. When he was done searching he took a moment to toss the weapons on the roof of the newsstand.

Booker had the heavy revolver in his hand as he looked down the tunnel to Athena's Glory, but he didn't see anyone and there wasn't any more shooting.

*Maybe the people here won't be hostile since you took down those splicers.*

"Right, maybe they'll invite me to dinner too."

-Booker-

He spent a couple of minutes looking down the tunnel for signs of activity, but there was none. Had the firing from down there been intended to keep the splicers heads down? Someone down there was either as good shot or had gotten real lucky to hit the now dead splicer.

He moved down the down the Tram Tunnel carefully, but still no activity. As they moved down they could see more of the inside of the building. There had been some heavy fighting at one time. On the left they could see the burned out remains of hair salon and a partially collapsed stairway against the far wall. The stairs on the right far wall were undamaged and there was something called the "Coffee Corner".

*Whoever was here must have retreated.*

"Maybe." Didn't feel like a retreat. Felt more like a trap.

*What's wrong?*

"Splicers didn't even try to come down here."

*You think they tried before and it didn't end well for them. Tammy's hostility did seem personal.* She was standing behind him with a thoughtful expression.

They soon got the where the tunnel met the building, but he paused to get a better look at things. He guessed this was some kind of small station for the trams. The "station" had about to a huge skylight and had been lit by four large chandelier of which only two still worked. The stairs led up to a balcony on each side of the station and were connected by a walkway that went over the tracks.

They needed to get a look around the corner without warning anyone he was there. Or getting shot.

*Do you think the Chameleon Gear can help?*

"Have to stay totally still for it to work. Guess I'm going to have to crawl."

*Crawl?* He looked at the Tram Tracks which were several feet lower than the platform next to it. *I see, the platform will provide cover. And when you get far enough, the Coffee Corner will help keep you from being seen when you climb out.*

"Hopefully anyone up there will be putting their attention on this corner and not on that coffee place."

He jumped down onto the tracks and slowly started to crawl. He had been worried about noise, but the Cat's Feet Gear kept him silent and it only took a short time to reach his destination. They carefully looked up over the edge of the platform, but didn't see anything.

They did hear something though. Voices. Seemed to be coming from higher up on the right side.

"I don't think they're coming this time." a man said.

"Yeah, splicers aren't known for subtlety." another man responded.

"Always a first time Sam" a woman responded. "Let's give it a few more minutes."

*Well, someone up there knows how to be cautious.* Elizabeth observed with a small amount of respect.

He climbed onto the platform and moved to the coffee shop before looking around more. The coffee shop was rather long and ran back under the balcony. He could walk back and not be seen by those above. Beyond the coffee shop was a small bank of elevators. Each side of the station had two flights of stairs that led up the balcony. Were a few vending machines here, but those could wait.

*Looks like the only way up would be one of those elevators.*

*Let's wait until they relax a little.*

A few minutes later they heard an elevator stopping on the floor above. Then a voice yelled out.

"I did IT! I finally got one of the turrets working!" a young man shouted.

"Well, get it out here William!" came the woman's voice. Wait...

*That sounded like Mary from Clarice's group.* Elizabeth sounded as surprised as he felt.

"Didn't think you could get that thing workin' kid." Now they could hear it a little better, that sounded a lot like Sam.

There was the sound of metal on metal. "Come on, I got it working. Can't you help me move it?"

*I'm certain that's William Booker.*

*Huh, guess they decided to keep him around.*

*I wish they had been able to get out of here to someplace safer.*

*Don't think there is anyplace much safe anymore. Any idea on how I can get their attention without being shot at?*

*Shout to get their attention and tell them you're Booker DeWitt.*

*That's your idea?* He had rather hoped for something more, well something.

*Well, it's not like there's anything else other than shooting something.* She sounded a little irritated.

*Guess yelling it is.*

"Hey! Mary!" he called out.

It got very quiet all of a sudden.

*Hey Mary? Is that the best you could think of?*

*Got their attention.* She rolled her eyes.

"Who's down there? Where are you?" Sam called.

"It's Booker, Booker DeWitt."

"Booker?" Mary asked skeptically.

Sam was more practical. "Come out where we can see you. No tricks."

He slowly walked out from behind the coffee shop, keeping his hands away from his sides and in clear view.

Mary demanded "How did he get over there? Let me see your face." She was surprisingly unfriendly. There was a pile of sandbags at the top of the stairs and behind it were Mary, Sam and couple another members of Clarice's group. They all weapons out and looked ready to use them.

*Dad, your mask?* He had forgotten about it.

He reached up with his left hand and pushed the mask back so the people above could see his face.

Even at a distance they could see Sam's smile and even William seemed pleased. Mary was harder to read.

"Ok to come up now?" he asked them above.

Sam was about to say something, but Mary held up her hand and went to speak with him for a moment.

*Somethings changed.*

*Yeah, Mary seems to be giving a lot of orders.*

*She was one of Clarice's inner circle. Without Clarice, the power structure of the group probably has gone through some changes.*

Mary called down. "What are you here for? How did you find us?"

"Doin' a trade with someone who used to live here. I bring back something from his apartment, he gives me something I have a use of. Didn't know you were here, just lucky I guess." He put his mask back down over his face.

"Why you wearing that thing?"

*She sure has gotten pushy all of a sudden.* Elizabeth was looking at Mary with a growing look of suspicion.

"Lot easier to get about. Not looking to cause any trouble, just want to do the job and get going."

Sam leaned over and spoke to Mary, then she called down. "Sorry, Booker. It's been rough the past few days. Come on up."

He walked towards the stairs on the right, careful to move slowly. Part way up the stairs Sam asked "You see any of Atlas's splicers around?"

"The ones shooting down here a couple minutes ago?"

"Yeah."

"One's dead and other two are going to have headaches when they wake up."

"Which one's dead?" Mary asked.

"One with the long rifle. Don't think many will miss her.*

*I wouldn't be surprised if they have a party to celebrate.* For a moment he felt like checking on Elizabeth's location, but stopped himself. She wasn't here.

"Did you get their weapons?" Sam inquired with a half hopeful expression.

"Bit much to carry. Tossed up on the roof of the newsstand."

"You see anyone else up in the Square?" Mary asked.

"No, some heavy fighting…*in Mercury Suites*in Mercury Suites though."

Mary turned to Sam. "Take Murphy and see if you can get those guns. That rifle is the most important."

"Right Boss." Sam responded and walked over to Murphy and both men started heading down the stairs.

Mary gave him a look. "So how did you get over to the Coffee Corner? You a Houdini now?"

"Crawled."

"Crawled?"

"Along the tracks next to the platform."

Mary looked down and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"With splicers that crawl on the walls and teleport, easy to miss something like that."

There was a metallic "thunk" and he looked at the elevator were William was still trying to get a turret out of the cage.

Elizabeth was standing nearby looking at the young man with a sympathetic expression. *I think he needs a little help.*

*Guess he does.* "Mind if I help?" he asked Mary.

"Please do."

A minute later the turret had been extracted and William pushed it into position to open fire on anyone that reached the top of the stairs. As they worked he and Elizabeth speculated a little might have happened, but really couldn't get very far.

Mary came up to him as they finished. "You're probably wondering what's happened since we broke out."

"Mind callin' me Robert Boston?"

"Why?"

"Could say I'm doing some undercover work."

She gave a half shrug and continued. "The letter Clarice gave Martin had a lot in it. A list of trustworthy contacts, access to her bank accounts, here and on the surface. One of the people on the list is the guy who is running, well, ran this place. He let us stay here in some unfinished rooms while we tried to find someplace else."

"Then Atlas attacked."

"Yeah." She said sadly. "The splicers down in Fontaine's were pussy cats compared to one up here. But we had weapons and have been fighting for awhile. Most of the people living here were nearly helpless."

"Can guess what happened."

*Another slaughter.*

"We took in who we could. Got some kids now, teenagers, even a newborn baby. We're about ninety now." she paused as if what came next was hard for her to say. "And as of two days ago, I'm the leader of them all."

"What happened to Martin?"

"He... resigned. Held us together until he couldn't take it anymore. Don't think he can live without Clarice. He's trying to get back down to Fontaine's and think of a way to get her out."

*They don't know?*

*Prison's forgotten about with the war on.* He told Elizabeth.

"There's nothing to go back to Mary. Ryan flooded the building couple hours after we got out."

"I, where did you hear that?"

"Saw it happen, courtesy of Ryan himself."

"You spoke to Andrew Ryan?" she looked a little dumfounded. "Oh, that's the reason for the mask."

"Rather he not know my business."

Sam and Murphy had gotten back and came up the stairs carrying the weapons he had taken from the splicers.

Mary turned to them. "Have any trouble?"

Sam shook his head.

Mary turned back to Booker. "Most of Atlas's people left us alone after the first attack. But sometimes a few of them come down to shoot at us. Had rogue splicers attack us too. I had been starting to think we were better off down in Fontaine's, but…"

Sam cocked his head and Mary took a moment to explain what happened at Fontaine's after they left. He just sighed when she finished.

"You seem to have gotten around. Anyplace in Rapture that ain't a warzone?" Sam wanted to know.

"Not seen anyplace. City's tearing itself apart. If it's not Ryan and Atlas, it's splicers. Some places just happening faster than others."

"Should've made a run for the surface when we had a chance." Mary lamented.

He remembered the decoy bathysphere being destroyed. "Ryan has torpedoes. Never would have made it."

"Sorry boss." Sam told her. "Looks like we're stuck."

"War's going end sometime. Just have to make it till then." he told both of them.

"Any other brilliant predictions?" Mary asked sourly.

"Sorry, don't make predictions unless I grow a long beard first."

*Booker!* Elizabeth scolded him.

"Can't see you in a beard." Mary gave a weak half smile.

'Wish I hadn't.'

She continued "So "Mr. Boston", where do you need to go?"

"Fourth floor, Apartment B3."

"Good, that's on this side."

"This side?"

Mary explained as she started walking towards the elevator that heading up. "This place is split into an "A" and "B" sections. The other side is "A", this is "B". You don't mind if I go up with you, do you?"

"No, don't mind."

*Huh, a first date. You should have brought flowers.* Elizabeth told him with a smirk.

*What? No … this isn't a date.*

*Well, that's because you didn't bring any flowers.* She looked at him with an oh so innocent smile. It was perfect match to the one Anna wore when she thought she outsmarted him.

After the doors closed Mary started talking. "Sorry about earlier. I'm not used to being the boss."

"Not easy giving the orders. Just remember, you don't have to do everything yourself."

"I'm a "hands on" sorta gal. Guess I'll have to change that."

"So how's everyone else doing?"

"We haven't lost anyone, yet. Had a few close calls. Xin is trying to start a school or something. There's a small restaurant at the top of the building which my brother is running, God help us. You've seen Sam and William."

They arrived on the fourth floor and Mary led him down a corridor to the right.

"You know, we wouldn't mind you hanging around. You're a good man to have around in a fight."

He held up his right hand so she could see the back of it. "I might be the one you'd be fighting before too long."

*Sometimes a little positive thinking can do wonders Booker.*

"Oh, but until then... maybe you could visit?"

"Maybe. Here's Wildhelm's place. You don't have to come in."

Like most of the apartments they had passed the door had been broken open. He and Elizabeth walked inside while Mary stood in the corridor.

The apartment had been damaged, but not as badly as he would have expected. They looked around the living room a moment. Someone had put a bullet through the phone and there was some blood on the floor, but no body.

*That's not much blood. Certainly not enough to die from, unless it was from internal bleeding.*

"Did you say Wildhelm?"the woman outside the room asked.

They looked at Mary. "Yeah."

"Would the woman's first name be Joan?"

"Don't know. He never said."

*Look for some pictures.* Elizabeth told him.

*Think Wildhelm's wife might still be alive?*

There was a table near one of the chairs that had been knocked over. He bent over and picked up several pictures. They were all of Wildhelm and a woman. Didn't see one with a silver frame though. He showed one of them to Mary and she nodded.

"Yes. She's one of the ones who joined us. Tough little lady, think she was a nurse in the war. Even when she had her leg all bandaged up, she was helping other people."

*Think Wildhelm will give us the Camera for tellin' him his wife is still alive?*

*After you escort him back here from Point Prometheus, I'm sure he'll be happy to give it to you.*

*Do we have...*

*Yes, we do.* Elizabeth had a very determined expression on her face. She wasn't going to take no for an answer about this.

He turned to Mary to explain. "Wildhelm thinks his wife is dead. Would you mind someone else joining?"

"Joan has been a big help, I really couldn't turn her husband away."

"Wildhelm was soldier. Even with a bum leg, think he'll pull his weight. Should get a message for him from his wife before I go."

"You going back tonight?" Mary asked.

*Yes, we are.* He could see the stubborn look was still on her face.

"If I can."

"Well, before you go then, may I invite you to dinner Mr. Boston?"

End Chapter 43


	44. Chapter 44

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 44

-Booker-

Mary inviting him to dinner was a surprise. "Sorry, but I should be going."

Mary wasn't going to let it go that easily. "Think of it as payment for getting us those weapons."

Had no worries about those who had been down in Fontaine's, but he didn't know any of the recent additions and had no reason to trust them. "Best if I get this Wildhelm as soon as I can."

That made Mary pause. "Hm. I guess so. But we still owe a dinner."

"Maybe next time."

Wasn't sure if Elizabeth had been disappointed or amused by it all. Probably a little of both.

He returned to the first floor while Mary went to speak to Mrs. Wildhelm. He spent a short time talking to Sam and William. Actually, William did most of the talking. In fact he didn't seem to want to stop. Even Elizabeth was ready to gag him before long.

Not soon enough Mary came down and gave him an Audio Diary. They chose a frequency on the short wave so they could talk to each other and he could let them know when he brought Wildhelm down as well as simple code words to be used. After that, he headed out for Point Prometheus.

They were soon walking up the incline to Olympus Central Square. Elizabeth was a little ahead of him.

No, she wasn't.

"So, what are thinking about?"

*Hmm? Oh. I think we found a place to go to if, when, we leave the Way.*

"Thought it was clear I can't stay with Clarice's people."

*Not with them, near them.*

"Near? You mean the other side of the tram tracks."

*Yes. You would be close enough to help them if there was trouble, but not so close to pose an immediate threat.*

"Hum, might work. If someone attacks they will be focused on the other side. Find a room on an upper floor, maybe get a few turrets if I can."

*Turrets?*

"Can't be awake all the time."

They arrived at the Square, but didn't hear or see anyone else. Probably wouldn't last long. "Want to check out the bistro?"

*Might was well, but we shouldn't spend too much time.*

They went in the side of the bistro opposite the entrance to Apollo Square. Despite all the damage the place had taken, there were still unbroken bottles of alcohol on the shelves and on the tables. He didn't understand how, but there they were. They noticed an Audio Diary that had been knocked on the floor and went over to pick it up.

_Yi Suchong: Mozart of Genetics_

_That's quite a little monster Fontaine's dug up. When she does speak, which is almost never, her accent is thick and grating. Her hair is filthy and she seems to wear the same mustard-stained jumper day after day. But I've got to hand it to Frank: Tenenbaum is the all-time diamond in the rough. No formal training, no experience... but put her in front of a gene sequence, and she's Mozart at the harpsichord._

He put the device on the bar. *Tenenbaum must be extremely talented in order for Suchong to give her any kind of praise.*

"Let's hope she's as good as he says she is." He walked behind the counter and looked around a moment. In a box under the counter was an Infusion. He used it to boost his Health. Next they went over to the El Ammo Bandito which noisily greeted them with by saying "Bienvenido al Ammo Bandito!",

He Bypassed it and looked at the ammunition for sale. No Heavy Revolver ammo or Electric Buck. They did have two new things though. Something called "napalm" and liquid nitrogen.

*Napalm is a mixture of gasoline and something that makes it stick to whatever it hits. Often some form of aluminium salts *

"Set's people on fire. What's with this liquid nitrogen?"

*Nitrogen is a gas that forms nearly 80% of the air we breathe. This nitrogen is so cold it's liquefied.*

He got it. "There's something that can shoot this stuff and imitate Incinerate! and Winter Blast. Might be useful."

*Whatever it is, it would probably have a rather limited range.*

"Better than nothing."

The heavy door that led to Apollo Square started to cycle open. Time to go. They quickly left the Square the way they had come. Once in the tram tunnel they kept moving until they were out of sight of the Square.

"Is there a more direct way to get to Prometheus Point rather than going back to the Way?"

Elizabeth was quite for a moment. *The locked up tram stop you passed earlier would have been the best bet. Other than that I can't think of anything. Wish I had spent a little more time finding out how to get around Rapture now.* Her expression showed frustration and irritation.

"Not like you knew this would happen."

*I could have known though, Should have known.*

"No use worrying 'bout it now, is there?"

*I guess not.* she said in a depressed tone. It still bothered her that she hadn't known he and Anna would be in Rapture.

They didn't have any trouble walking down the tram tracks, but just before they reached the closed tram stop they found am unkept splicer in the middle of the tram tracks. He was carving a statue out of a twenty foot tall block of ice using Incinerate!. The stature was only partially done, but even he thought it could be impressive.

Still, they kept their distance from the splicer and his statue. Never knew when a splicer might up and attack. After a minute or so the sculptor noticed them and waved at them with a friendly, but sad smile. He turned back to his sculpting, but called over his shoulder "If you're around in a couple of hours, I should be finished by then."

"Sorry friend, don't think I will." Booker told him.

"Too bad. Nice to hear what people think of my work, even the critics. Take care out there."

They continued on their way as the sculptor worked. "Why is he making a statue out of ice in the middle of a tram track?" he quietly asked.

*A statement about the impermanence of art? Maybe about people and everything they build?*

"City's tearing itself apart around him and he's making "statements" like that?"

*That's how some artists are. Comstock certainly hired enough artists to know.*

"Humph! Comstock hired people to make propaganda, not art." He looked back at the sculptor engrossed in his work. "Guess I never understood art."

*When I get older maybe we can try to understand it together.*

He smiled a little at that. "You'll probably have to explain it to me." They gotten close to the closed tram stop, but there had been some changes since then. One of the metal gates on the entrance way had been ripped apart.

"Looks like someone in there wanted out."

*Judging from the size of the hole it must have been a Big Daddy.*

"Hope it was."

*Why would you hope that?* she asked with a puzzled expression.

"Cause if it wasn't a Big Daddy, means something else can do this kinda thing down here."

As they climbed into the entrance, he had an impulse to turn around and help Elizabeth over the twisted metal. He crushed the impulse. She wasn't there.

_Remember, the parasite is lazy. The man who does nothing is nothing. _

A green and white style street sign stated that this was Achilles Commons. The layout was similar to the Blue Ascot's, but larger and much fancier. Instead of a depression in the middle of the lobby there was a large swimming pool surrounded by a low fence. The pool was occupied, but not by swimmers. Three swollen forms floated in the sickly looking water.

There were no other bodies around, but there were some signs of combat. He looked at the bodies again. All three were dressed in black. One of them looked to be a maid? The smell was terrible.

*Those bodies have been in there about two days, given the amount of bloating due to being in water. We aren't going to be able to tell much about what happened here.*

"Wouldn't say that." He focused his eyes on the bodies' legs.

*I see. They were tied.*

"Bet there's some kind of weights at the bottom of the pool."

*Weights? Those people were drown?*

"Someone wanted them to suffer."

*On the other side of the pool, is that writing?*

"Yeah, think it is."

Big red letters scrawled on the floor. Couldn't really read them upside down. As they walked around the pool it turned out that the message was "Class Traitors". At least it wasn't written in blood.

*Some of Atlas's rebels have the same attitude of the Vox. If you just work for the rich, you're guilty in their eyes.*

He paused to look around the lobby then glanced up.

"Shit."

Hanging off the third floor railing were a line of bodies with rope around their necks. Old men, women, teenagers. He didn't want to count how many.

He quickly turned away. "Let's be shut of this place."

-Elizabeth-

They had walked under those bodies and not even realized it. She was getting a little more worried about Booker. He was starting to look around for the hallucination of her, of Elizabeth, a little more often. She hoped it was just a result of him being tired and not a sign of his condition worsening.

They found an exit from Achilles Commons and chose one of the glass tunnels that seemed to head in the direction of Point Prometheus. It took a little while before they found a sign that pointed them to Reese Plaza. As they started down the tunnel, a baseball bat wielding splicer came charging up from a side tunnel. A few hits from the Air Grabber to activate the Electric Touch Gear and a blow to the back of the head left the woman unconscious on the floor.

They saw several Big Daddies, but only one Little Sister on the trip back.

*All the Little Sisters are starting to look alike to me. I don't even know if I would recognize myself anymore.*

"Sure I'll know you when I see you."

*Oh? And how can you be so sure?*

"You'll be doing something to cause trouble." She could hear him smiling when he said it. For a split second she wanted to argue, but realized that he was probably right.

*Does she Really cause that much trouble?*

He chuckled a little. "Not for me, but…" *I'm not going to let anyone bully me.*

"No, you're not." He sounded rather happy about that.

After a short time they came to Reese Plaza, but no one was there. As they left the Plaza she remembered the Audio Diary they had found in the Tram Tunnel and reminded Booker to play it. Upon hearing it she wished she had remembered it sooner. The woman's voice had a heavy German accent and carried more than a hint of shame.

_Brigid Tenenbaum: Failure_

_Date: Jan 18, 1959_

_Extracting the slug safely from the little ones is proving even more difficult than I had first believed. Forcibly removing the slug or killing it ends the symbiotic relationship with the little one and they soon die. I had believed, was certain, I had found a way to remove the slug safely and undo the damage._

_The little one died 38 hours 27 minutes later. _

_How can I save them? How can I undo the terrible things I did to them? _

"Guess she hasn't figured it out yet." her father said grimly.

*That was over a month ago. I'm certain she's made progress since then.* 'I know she'll find a cure, I saw it. I just hope it's soon.'

"Nothin' we can do about it." he said as they continued walking towards the Point.

A little later Booker knocked on the door of Wildhelm's office. He had to knock several times before getting a response from inside. A weary and wary Wildhelm cracked open the door to look at Booker.

"Back already?" Guess he had a right to be surprised. "Were you able to find the picture and the ring?" A look of sad hope filled his face.

"Something better." Booker told the man and held out the Audio Diary Mary had given him.

He took the Diary reluctantly. "What's this?"

"Told it was a message from your wife for you."

"My wife? You mean…Joan, she's alive?"

"What I was told. I'll wait out here while you listen to it."

Wildhelm slowly closed the door. It was more than five minutes before the door opened again. Wildhelm had been crying, but he had a smile on his face.

"I'm sorry I took so long, I thought lost… she's alive. Let me go get the Research Camera. You've earned it."

"Don't worry about it now. You can give it to me after I get you to Athena's Glory tomorrow."

"What? Tomorrow?" Wildhelm blinked in confusion.

"You're going to need to help to get down there. Best to make the trip after both of us have had some sleep."

He sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Guess you're right, tomorrow would be better. But knowing she's still alive..."

"I should be here about eight o'clock or maybe a little later."

"Thank you, thank you, Mr…ahh, I never got your name."

"It's Robert Boston."

"Thank you, Mr. Boston." Wildhelm said as you stuck out his hand for Booker to shake.

He took the offered hand. "See you in the morning, Mr. Wildhelm." Booker told him and left.

They took the elevator down to the lobby of the building and soon left Point Prometheus for Reese Plaza. When they stepped through the Securis door into the Plaza they found a woman in the remains of a fancy dress and armed with a shotgun. She was standing near the Tunnel entrance they had used to get to Olympus Heights with a Security Bot hovering around her. She was looking down at something on the first floor, waiting for something?

She looked at Booker as the Securis door finished opening and shrieked "Parasite, Parasite! Kill him Albert! Kill hiiim!" He backed up as the Bot opened fire damaging his Shield. He hit it with the Bypass Plasmid and it stopped firing for a moment.

The woman started backing away and fired the shotgun. Booker's Shield took the hit, but it probably wouldn't take much more.

"I'm your BETTER!" she screamed.

Her father had the Autopistol out and fired three times at the woman, hitting with all three shots. Then the Security Bot opened fire on him again, breaking his Shield.

Booker quickly backed up down the Tunnel to get out of the machine's line of fire. The Security Bot swooped down to the Tunnel entrance to shoot again and her father hit it with Possession. The Security Bot hesitated a moment then turned and fired on its former master.

"Least that still works on machines."

"Albert! You traitor!" the splicer yelled and the shot gun fired twice. The Bot fired once more, then all was quiet. The possessed Bot flew back to the tunnel entrance and hovered there a moment before turning to look at Booker making a sound almost like it was wondering if it did good. It reminded her a little of how a dog would act. They walked out into the Plaza as the Bot flew back and forth. When they checked the body of the splicer they found only a few dollars and a chocolate bar.

After a few more moments the Possession on the Bot wore off and it dropped to the lower floor below with a loud crash. After that, all they heard was a clicking sound.

"So exactly what happened?" Booker wondered out loud looking down at the Security Bot.

*I think the Bot shut down. You should try to hack it while it's disabled.*

"No, why did it keep shooting at me after being Bypassed?" That was a good question.

She thought as Booker made his way to the lower floor. The Bot lay on the floor of the plaza still covered with the blue flame of the Bypass Plasmid and continued to make a clicking sound.

_Incinerate! The New Plasmid from Ryan Industries! When it absolutely positively has to erupt in flames, don't wait - Incinerate!_ _Evolve Today!_

*Security Bypass was designed to make security systems ignore the user. I suppose if there are direct orders to attack, the security system can't ignore you anymore. I think that if you damaged a Turret or Security Bot, it would no longer ignore you either.*

"I destroyed a Turret down in Fontaine's."

*You destroyed it so quickly it never had the chance to try and shoot at you.* Now that they were closer she noticed that the Bot had flames painted on the side. The splicer had decorated the Bot? Also, she had called it Albert. Some people really seem to enjoy personifying machines.

He bent down to start to hack the Bot, but stopped. "If I hack this, what's it going to do? Follow me around?"

*Yes.* *Oh, I see. It would be rather hard to sneak around with a Bot flying about your head.*

"Just a little."

Then the Securis Door on the first floor started to cycle. She doubted that someone friendly would come through it.

Booker quickly moved to one of the darker corners of the small plaza and put his back to the wall. The Gear did its job and made Booker look like part of the wall.

Less than a minute later four people walked in, three men and a woman. All where splicers and the three men carried either a shotgun or a machine gun.

A man in a battered black suit and white hat yelled "Yo Vicky! We're here!"

The woman in a dark colored flapper dress and a blood splattered cat mask noticed the inactive Security Bot and walked over to it. "Hey Frank!" she called out in a high pitched screechy voice. "This looks like Vicky's pet Security Bot."

Frank walked over to look at the Bot. He had a dark gray suit on and carried a Tommy Gun. The last man walked over as well. He carried a shotgun and wore a blue blazer, tan pants and broken rabbit mask that only covered the left side of his face. The exposed right side of his face was extremely swollen and covered with open sores.

Frank ordered "Spread out. Find Vicky. Kill anyone you see." His voice was deep and harsh sounding. The flapper vanished in a cloud of red and black smoke. The splicer in the dark suit and white hat was walking in their direction, his Tommy Gun ready to fire.

This wasn't looking good. The splicer would see Booker if he got much closer. He was muttering something about "a mook".

"Aw, Vicky. What happened to you?" came the flapper's voice from the upper level. The three male splicers all looked up at her. No one was even remotely looking in Booker's direction for a moment.

"What'd you find Amy?" Frank asked as Booker left the wall and strode up behind the splicer in the white hat and knocked him out with the Air Grabber. If the blow hadn't worked Booker had the heavy revolver in his had ready to put a bullet into the back of the man's head.

*Glad whoever made this thing, made it tough.*

Instead of letting the splicer fall, her father grabbed him and dragged him back behind one of the pillars.

"They killed Vicky, those BASTARDS!" the Houdini yelled down to Frank.

"Len, get upstairs. Arlo, finish checking over there." Frank commanded.

Booker leaned the unconscious Arlo against a pillar using a hook on it to keep him upright. Then he returned to his former position to allow the Chameleon Gear to blend him into the wall again. She knew what he was doing now. Booker set up unconscious Arlo as part of a trap.

"Arlo? Hey Arlo!" "God Damn It Arlo, I don't need your horse shit right now!" Frank complained.

An angry Frank started stomping in their direction as Len climbed the stairs. The splicer got a little closer and noticed Arlo's leg that was partially sticking out from behind the pillar.

"There you are!" Frank went right up to the unconscious Arlo and was grabbed him before realizing the other splicers condition. "What the?" was all he was able to say before Booker hit him and he collapsed on the floor.

Booker's little trap had worked well enough against Frank, the last two would be harder to deal with.

"Hey Frank! Where are you Frank?" the screechy voiced splicer called down. Booker moved two pillars away from where the two unconscious splicers lay and took cover. He had the Tommy Gun out now and Devil's Kiss ready to use.

"Len! Somethin's wrong. I don't see Frank." Oh was her voice irritating!

They couldn't see the stairs from behind the Pillar, but they heard the splicer slowly walk down them as the female Houdini continually called for Frank. Guess she didn't care about Arlo much.

The sound of Len's footstep changed, he had reached the bottom of the stairs. Booker stepped out from behind the pillar first he threw the fire bomb and then started shooting. The upgrade to the Tommy Gun worked nicely and Booker easily kept the rounds from the Tommy Gun on target even at a fair distance.

Len was only able to get off a short burst from his own machine gun before dying. Now came the hardest part, dealing with the Houdini.

Her father ducked behind the pillar and quickly reloaded with anti-personnel rounds. The burst from Len's machine gun hadn't damaged his Shield heavily, but Booker didn't seem to want to chance it. The remaining splicer was quite now.

That actually bothered her more than if she had kept on talking.

Booker peaked out from behind the pillar, but didn't see anything. She didn't like this and Booker seemed to like less. He shifted his position to the next pillar to the left and then to the one closest to the corner. As he did so, he started loading the shotgun with explosive buck.

Just as he loaded the fourth shell, the splicer appeared in the center of the plaza, but vanished again before Booker could fire. He suddenly sprinted back towards the two unconscious splicers as a red and black cloud appeared at the far side of the plaza. The splicer had teleported into the center of the plaza to find out where Booker was and then changed to a safer location. Why so far away?

Booker quickly switched to the Tommy Gun and fired a short burst, then fire exploded all around him. He took cover behind a pillar, but the flames kept eating away at his Shield. The splicer wasn't throwing fireballs, all she had to do was snap her fingers her target would catch on fire. It took several seconds for the fire to burn out.

"CATCH!" the voice came from the left and a piece of concrete smashed into Booker before he could react. His Shield shattered and the impact staggered him. He recovered quickly and turned, but the splicer had already vanished. She had Incinerate! AND Telekinesis. Worse, she knew how to use her Plasmids to good effect. There had to be something she could do to help!

"You killed FRANK! You killed Vicky!" she screeched. They looked up to see that the Houdini had teleported to the upper level. "You're going to DIE!" Then the splicer vanished again.

Booker tried something different this time. He sprinted to another pillar for cover and ducked down. A moment later flame exploded over his head. He swung around the right, but was too late. He swung back the left to see the black and red cloud forming at the other end of the plaza. He waited an instant and fired a bolt of electricity from the Air Grabber.

As electricity played over the splicer, her father brought up Charge and switched to the shotgun. He wasn't going to miss this opportunity and activated the Vigor after only a moment. They slammed into the shocked splicer and Booker quickly fired twice using the explosive buck before the splicer teleported again.

"BASTARD!" came a pain filled scream from the upper level behind them.

Booker jumped to the side and turned at the same time. The spot where he had been standing exploded in flame, but he hadn't been fast enough and flames stared to eat away at his newly recovered Shield. To her surprise Booker used Bucking Bronco on the splicer. For a couple seconds the burning woman thrashed in the air before teleporting again.

While the splicer was under the effects of the Bronco, her father swiftly reloaded the revolver with Incendiary Rounds. He had just finished when the Houdini appeared on the upper level to their right. But she appeared behind a pillar. She was taking cover? Booker quickly threw a Devils Kiss firebomb next to the pillar.

The splicer screamed when the bomb exploded and teleported again, this time near Securis Door. As he fired, new flames enveloped Booker and his Shield broke again. He got off a one shot before the splicer vanished again.

When she reappeared behind him she started thrashing around as she continued to burn. Her father fired twice more, the last one hitting her head.

He quickly used a First Aid Kit, then started reloaded his weapons.

"As I said, these splicers are getting tougher."

*I wonder why she tried hiding behind the pillar?*

"We can check when after we visit the Values machine."

First they checked the dead and unconscious, finding some money, three flasks of hard liquor and two EVE Hypos. Once done with that, they bought a First Aid Kit, some coffee and a six of Pep Bars.

*Think you have enough Pep Bars?* He started to look to the right, but stopped himself.

"Used a lot of EVE. Let's see what that splicer was doing behind that pillar."

The walked over to the pillar and on the floor near it was a First Aid Kit.

*You must have interrupted her with the fire bomb and she dropped it.*

"She'd been able use that, fight would be lot harder." He sounded grim.

*But she didn't, so let's get back to Prosperity Way.*

"Yeah, bed's lookin' might nice about now."

As they walked down the stairs to the first floor again there was a small explosion. The Security Bot had blown up.

*They must have some sort of security measures in place so that is a Bot isn't shut down properly, it self- destructs after a period of time.*

"Think they would lose a lot of those things that way."

*Probably was intended to keep Atlas's people from using them. Somehow, I doubt it worked very well.*

The rest of the trip back to Prosperity Way was without any problems. Once back, they walked to the newsstand to get a paper and noticed some workmen just short distance down the Way putting up something. It was easy to figure out what it was even in its partially completed state.

A Vita-Chamber.

"Put'n up those things everywhere."

The man behind the counter at the newsstand thought Booker spoke to him and replied. "That's what I hear. I'm happy to have one close by. Don't have to leave the Way to get rejuvenated now."

"I guess so." Booker politely responded as he paid for a paper. "Night" he told the man and turned to walk to the Renaissance.

"Get rejuvenated?"

*It's not public knowledge that the Vita-Chambers purpose is to bring back the dead. I expect that they do something to make a person feel better, but it's just a cover story. Ryan must want the Vita-Chambers all over the city so he can never be killed so long as he stays here.*

"Wait, then how is Jack going to kill him?"

*I think he uses a golf club.*

"Golf club?"

*I can't really remember the details, but Jack does kill Ryan and Fontaine.*

"Most important part I guess."

There was a haggard looking woman behind the desk when they got to the Renaissance. She had her left hand wrapped in a bandage. There were about twenty people in the lobby and more in the lounge, but things were quite.

They took the elevator up to their floor and soon were in Booker's room. He spent a few moments putting stuff away, then he asked her to do something.

"Could you close your eyes for a moment. You'll know when to open them."

He was up to something. *And why should I close my eyes?*

"It's a surprise." She could tell he was smiling. What kind of surprise could he have for her? She was starting to feel a little sleepy. Better play along unless wanted to fall asleep in the middle of something. She "closed" her eyes, but planned to listen carefully.

*Ok.* So, what was he up to?

He walked a short distance, must be in the bedroom. Then there was a soft dragging sound. Something opening? It was quiet for about ten seconds.

Then the sound of a strings being strummed and the start of a song. She opened her eyes. Booker had a guitar! She didn't say anything, just wanted to listen to him play. It sounded so good. It was something she had been missing, but hadn't known it. She closed her eyes again and just let the music take her away.

It wasn't long before everything started to fade, but she could feel herself smiling.

End Chapter 44


	45. Chapter 45

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 45

-Elizabeth-

She started to wake up slowly and she heard bells or something. She wanted to listen longer to figure out what they were. Suddenly she was wide awake. Ugh. It was like someone had come and shaken her awake. It didn't feel very good.

They were sitting at a window side table in the diner. Must be morning since there was a cup of coffee and an empty plate pushed over to one side. Her father was looking over the paper they had bought last night. Most of it was the same old pro-Ryan propaganda, but when you read between the lines, you could get a feeling that things were falling apart. The staff at the Rapture Standard were taking a big chance even hinting at the truth.

*Good morning Booker.*

He didn't pause reading. *Didn't sleep well?*

She didn't bother asking how he knew.

*I think I slept well enough. Waking up was a different story.*

Sometimes it still bothered her a little sometimes how calmly Booker accepted having her looking through his eyes and talking to him. Could some part of his quick acceptance of it and the hallucination of seeing her be tied to the communication Plasmid and not ADAM sickness? He had rejected the idea, but it was something she wasn't going to dismiss so easily.

*What happened?*

*I'm not sure. I started to wake and suddenly I'm fully awake. Like someone saw I was starting to wake up and decided to help it along.*

*Happened alot when I was in the Army. Not very pleasant.*

*Not at all. So what time is it?*

He looked at his watch and it said 7:17.

*About time we started then.*

*Just waiting for you.*

Booker paid the bill and soon they were on their way back to Point Prometheus.

*Thank you for playing for me the guitar for me. You've gotten pretty good.*

"You're welcome. Thought you deserved something nice, small as it was."

*Not a small thing to me.* 'Not small at all.'

Things went surprisingly smoothly until they reached Reese Plaza. Once there, they found three heavily armed Constables watching over workman installing a Security Camera and several Turrets on the upper level. There were ten or so other people in the Plaza.

"Nother camera. Things are going up all over the place." Booker muttered.

*Surprised they aren't putting a Vita-Chamber in.*

"Give 'em time, they probably will."

From above they could hear someone yelling questions and insults. As they walked to the stairs, a Constable came strutting down them. He was tall, maybe six feet eight inches tall and was heavily over muscled. His uniform was actually tearing at seams as it futilely tried to contain the person that wore it. The skin on the man's face was stretched taunt over his skull and there were bust veins all over it. He lacked eyebrows and his right eye was bloodshot and overly large while his left looked sunken. He carried a machine gun like it was a toy.

"What are you here for?" he demanded with an angry tone.

"Just passin' through to the Point, officer. Got a job up there."

"Lota guns for a job! What kinda job is it!" He leaned and put his face just inches from Booker's. She had the feeling she should be very glad she couldn't smell anything.

Before her father could say anything, he screamed in Booker's face "I'm talking to YOU! Answer NOW!"

"Helpin' someone trapped at the Point, getting him back home, nothing more." Booker said calmly.

"Wait, I know you." The Constable face contorted as he took a step back and dropped the Tommy Gun. "Your that asshole that's been sleeping with my wife!" The splicer balled up his oversized hands as Booker stepped back and raised the shotgun.

"Don't nobody move!" yelled someone from above. "Gordon you sonabitch! Stand down! YOU! With the shotgun, lower it right now!"

Her father lowered the shotgun and took another step back. Gordon didn't relax though.

"GORDON! Stand down!" The voice above ordered. "You're not even married!"

Gordon looked puzzled. "I'm not?" Then a dazed but relaxed look came over the splicer's face. "Oh, sorry fella. Have a nice day." he said to Booker and just stood there staring out at nothing.

Booker moved around the delusional splicer as quickly as he could and went up the stairs. At the top was a second Constable who had a corporal's tag on his shoulders. He carried a Tommy Gun as well and didn't seem to be spliced.

"Sorry about Gordon. You know how it is, too much splicing. Let's see your identification card fella."

This one all business. Booker got out his faked ID card and handed to the corporal. He looked at it a moment and ordered "Lift your mask."

She was relived the Security Camera wasn't working yet and they didn't have to worry about Ryan seeing Booker's face. Her father lifted his mask as ordered, but she could tell by what he looked at things he was figuring out the best way to kill these people if he had too. The constable looked at the ID card and back to Booker's face several times.

"Why you have the mask on? Nothing wrong with your face." He asked suspiciously.

"Got some splicers mad at me. Not showin' my face makes things easier."

The man took a closer look. "You look familiar. Didn't I bust you for starting a fight up on High Street last year?"

Comstock's dead and he's still causing trouble for Booker.

"Sorry, musta been someone else. Never been up on High Street."

"Humph, look enough like 'em to be his brother."

"Can I be on my way then?" Booker asked the man.

The corporal handed Booker back the ID with a frown. "Yeah."

Her father put his mask back over his face. "Thanks." he told the man and headed for the Securis door that led to Point Prometheus.

They were out in the tunnel before Booker spoke. "Comstock made himself rather memorable, didn't he?" he said with a sour note in his voice.

*With Rapture Security he certainly did.*

"Hope they're gone when we come back."

*They seemed to be done with the turrets and mostly done with the camera. They should be gone by the time we come back with Mr. Wildhelm.*

"Then off to someplace else to put up another camera."

*You said it earlier. Security Cameras are going up all over Rapture.*

"Be glad to be well shut of this place." her father grumbled.

*You won't be the only one.* She never believed that she would want to leave anyplace as much as she had wanted to leave Columbia. She had detested Rapture from the moment she had arrived, but had stayed to deal with Comstock. Now the desire to leave Rapture was as strong as it had ever been in Columbia. It was a constant nagging…

'Constant?'

No, just bad luck that Suchong kidnaped her. Nothing more.

The rest of the trip to Wildhelm's office was uneventful and it was just a couple of minutes after eight o'clock when Booker knocked on the door. It opened just a couple of moments later to reveal a tired looking, but smiling Derrick Wildhelm.

"Mr. Boston. You're right on time. I'm ready to go."

He was wearing a suit jacket with a makeshift carrying bag over his shoulder and a cane. She was a little worried about how he tired he looked.

"Are you sure?" There was a note of concern in Booker's voice.

Wildhelm turned around and locked up the office. She though more out of habit than anything. "Sorry, couldn't sleep much. Gone almost three days without sleep before. May not be as young as I used to be, but I'm not going to let a little lost sleep stop me."

"You have a weapon?"

Wildhelm pulled out a .45 automatic from his coat pocket. "Joan always thought it was a bit silly I kept this. Never felt comfortable without it nearby." The look in his eyes became distant as he looked at it.

"Don't suppose she'll think it's silly now." Booker told him. "If you need anything, best to get it in the lobby before we leave."

"No, have everything I need."

"Good. When I came up here from Athena's Glory, it was by way of Olympus Central Square, down the Tram Tunnel to Achilles Commons and through tunnels up to Reese Plaza. There a better way to do it?"

Wildhelm thought a moment as they started walking towards the elevators. "No, don't think there is. I always took the Metro on account of my leg."

*You don't want to take him through Achilles Commons.*

*That and it's a long walk for someone with a bum leg.*

*You could Bypass a Bathysphere.* She didn't think he would, but still though she should suggest it.

*Metro's too big an unknown. Take longer to walk, but least we have some idea of what's ahead.*

Her father slammed his hand into the Call Button for the elevator with his usual "gentle" touch. She was surprised that he had never broken one while they had been in Columbia.

"Things out in Rapture there have gotten mighty ugly."

Wildhelm's eyes became shadowed. "Already seen the worst that people can do to each other. Worth it seein' it again to get back to my wife." The elevator doors opened with a "ding" and Wildhelm turned to look at Booker with a slight smile. "Don't worry about me."

"Let's go then." And gestured for Wildhelm to step into the elevator.

-Booker-

The ride down didn't take long and soon they stepped out into the lobby of Point Prometheus. Wildhelm walked a little bit faster than he first thought he would, but it wasn't fast by any means. Might be noon by the time they got to Athena's Glory.

They were out in Innovation Hall when Elizabeth started getting inquisitive about Wildhelm. He was slightly surprised it had taken so long.

*Mr. Wildhelm seems a little different than most of the people we've met in Rapture. I haven't figured exactly how.*

He wasn't quick enough to stop himself and glanced backward to where Elizabeth walked on the other side of Wildhelm. She was looking at the other man with a thoughtful expression.

*Think he might be here for a different reason.*

*A different reason.* *Some people came because they believed that Rapture offered them freedom or a chance to "be someone". Others because they feared a war with atomic weapons or were running from something, or someone.*

*Don't think Wildhelm runs away from much.*

*No, he doesn't. He's a little like you.*

*Me?* Wildhelm was in the Army, but he didn't seem all that similar.

*Like us both really. He's seen too much.*

*Huh. Might have to come to Rapture to start new. Seems like he did a good job of it.*

They went through the Securis door and into the tunnel that headed to Reese Plaza.

*His idea of starting new seems quite different than Comstock's.*

*Starting new doesn't have to mean running away from the past as Comstock always did. Can just mean going someplace new to start building a life. Or try to at any rate.* He hadn't done very well the first time around he had tried to "start new" after Wounded Knee.

*I never even thought about trying to build a new life after you died.* Her tone was a little sad. *Even now I can't think of a place I wanted to go, anything I wanted to do.*

*Well you got a new start even if you didn't think about.*

Elizabeth was quiet after that. They were nearly at Reese Plaza when Wildhelm spoke.

"You're a bit of an odd duck aren't you?"

"Sorry?"

"Lots a people what to hear war stories or at least ask "How did you lose your leg?" Don't think it even crossed you mind to ask."

He shrugged slightly. "None of my business."

Wildhelm gave a short laugh. "Spoken like a man who doesn't want questions asked about him."

"This is Rapture. Shouldn't have to worry about being asked questions."

"Right." Wildhelm said sarcastically.

"You don't seem to be a believer in the Rapture Way."

"No more than you are Mr. Boston." He looked at Wildhelm a moment. The other man had a slight smile on his face.

*Well, he figured you out fast enough.* Elizabeth said. She didn't look exactly worried, but she didn't seem happy either.

Wildhelm decided to explain a little. "Lota other people would have squeezed every penny they could out of me."

"Just providing a fair service for payment."

The other man snorted. "I bet you would have escorted me down to Athena's for a lot less than the Research Camera."

'More like someone I know would have badgered me until I did.'

"Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't." he said neutrally.

*You know, it wouldn't hurt you to be a little friendlier.* Elizabeth was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

*More I say, more he might figure out.*

*That does not mean you have to be standoffish.*

*Making small talk isn't a strong point of mine.*

*Maybe it's time you learned a little.*

*Later. Here's Reese Plaza.*

He turned to Wildhelm. "Mind stay'n here? Best if I scouted ahead a little."

"Trouble?" Wildhelm put his hand in his pocket with the pistol.

"Hope not." He opened the Securis Door and carefully entered the Plaza. The workmen and Security Guards were gone. The two turrets and the Security Camera didn't reacted to him, but he took a moment to Bypass them anyway. There were about eight people about this time, most of them looked to be splicers, but they seemed to be minding their own business.

*Looks quiet for once.* Elizabeth said as she looked over the down to the floor of the plaza below.

*Hope it stays that way.* He turned and motioned Wildhelm to come forward. None bothered them as they walked to the Tunnel that led to Olympus Heights.

It was relatively quiet the first part of the trip, only having to deal with a single splicer who tried to attack then with a wrench. Several minutes after leaving the unconscious splicer in the corridor, Wildhelm asked why Booker didn't kill her.

"Not a threat." He told the other man.

"Not a threat? She could have cracked your head open."

"Would have to hit first."

The other man was quiet for a moment. "Way you moved, guess you know how to take care of yourself in a fight."

Elizabeth gave a small laugh. *If that isn't the understatement of the year, I don't know what is.*

"Learned a few things about fighting." he told Wildhelm.

*And now you're trying to beat him?* She looked amused by it all.

Wildhelm humphed at what Booker said, but didn't say anything more.

Soon they got to Achilles Commons. He scouted ahead again to look for trouble. None was in the lobby when he got there, but someone had been. The bodies had been cut down and lay on the floor were they fell. A quick look confirmed that they had been searched. Bodies in the pool had been left alone.

He went back to Wildhelm and led him through to the security gate that had been torn open. Wildhelm looked at the dead and just shook his head sadly. When he went to help Wildhelm over the twisted metal of the broken gate, but the other man waved him off telling Booker he wasn't a cripple.

*As you said Booker, he does have his pride.*

The Tram Tunnel was clear of splicers in the immediate area, so they walked to where the artist had been working the day before. What they found was disappointing, a huge pile of broken and half melted ice. No telling what it had been now.

"Guess someone was an art critic." he muttered to Elizabeth.

*A harsh one. I hope the artist wasn't here when this happened.* Whoever had destroyed the ice statue had used machine guns and explosives.

Wildhelm came up behind them. "What's that?"

"Something that was never going to last." he said and started down the Tram Tunnel. As they traveled they started to see more people, mostly splicers, but there was no trouble. That changed when they got nearer to the overturned Tram Car and a splicer in battered work clothes came running out from behind it.

Four more splicers came running after him. Three of them had pistols and one a shotgun. The three men had suits on and the woman a fancy dress. Definitely not Atlas's rebels.

*Trouble.* *Always is.* Elizabeth agreed.

He took cover behind a large support column and glanced at Wildhelm who was heading in the direction of a pile of sandbags. The man's combat instincts still worked well enough. They were about 30 yards away now, the autopistol would be best.

The four splicers shot down the first splicer as he ran. Then they slowed to a walk to approach their victim who was desperately trying to crawl away. The splicers walked up behind the crawling man and causally shot him.

The splicer with the shotgun point down their direction. He must have seen them before they got to cover. All of them started walking their direction as the three splicers with pistols started firing at them. Wildhelm was hunkered down behind the sandbags and was safe, but he couldn't allow the slicers to get closer.

He switched to the Evil Eye Gear and leaned out from behind cover. Using the telescopic sight on the autopistol, got a good bead on the closest splicer and fired four times dropping him. The pistol took on a familiar reddish glow. There was an odd "click" sound from Wildhelm's direction. No time to look.

They three remaining splicer concentrated fire on him and his Shield took a couple of hits. At the same time he put three rounds into the female splicer and she fell. He ducked back under cover as the red glow on the pistol grew brighter and an instant later a lightning bold arced past. Hadn't seen which one had threw it.

"The last one with the pistol! Get him first!" Wildhelm called over. "He has Electo Bolt and he's a tough one!" How did he know that?

*Thank you, Mr. Wildhelm.* Elizabeth said.

He quickly reloaded and leaned out from behind the pole on the opposite side from before and quickly targeted the splicer with the pistol and Electro Bolt. He got off one round before being hit by a lightning bolt. Not enough to get through his Shield, but it sure didn't feel good. He gritted his teeth and fired four more times to put the splicer down.

As the splicer with the Electro Bolt fell, the splicer with the shotgun fired. His Shield took it, but it was nearing breaking. Three pistol shots came from Wildhelm's direction, he thought at least two of them hit. The splicer suddenly threw himself to the ground and rolled back to his feet to avoid being hit. It wasn't enough.

Booker fired twice more, both to the head. He reloaded and walked over to Wildhelm. The other man took a moment stand up. "Hey Boston! You ok?" He seemed rather worried.

"Fine. Thanks for the help."

"Fine? You got hit at least twice!"

"Having a Magnetic-Repulsive Field around one's body can come in handy."

"A what?" Both Wildhelm and Elizabeth looked puzzled. "Oh, one of those Infusion things. Heard they killed people." He was giving Booker a slightly odd look. Elizabeth walked up behind Wildhelm, but he didn't notice her. No, can't notice her. She's not there.

"Never been a problem for me. Best to be going before someone else shows."

"Yeah, guess we better. Haven't seen a pistol like that since the War, German's had 'em."

"Chinese copy, with some Rapture upgrades." That seemed to satisfy Wildhelm.

*A "Magnetic-Repulsive Field"?* Elizabeth looked rather skeptical.

*What Lutece called it. You think it's something else?*

*No, just strange for you to use such technical terms.*

*Have expanded my vocabulary a little you know.*

*If you say so.* she smirked.

They walked a little while but didn't encounter any more hostiles. They could see Olympus Central Square when Elizabeth had him ask a question of Wildhelm.

"How'd you know which splicer had the Electro Bolt?"

"The Research Camera. I have it set on the detailed analysis mode. Gives me a rundown of everything in a splicer. Need to know what it all means to do any good though. Works fine for diagnosing genetic defects."

"That thing come with instructions?"

"Don't worry. It has an automatic mode."

"Good, never been one much for cameras."

*I guess you're going to learn a little bit about photography Booker.*

*Great.*

They got to Olympus Central Square and past it without further problems. A short time later he stopped and used the shortwave to call Clarice's people.

"This is Boston, anyone there?"

A minute passed before William answered +_Read you B... Mr. Boston. What's the password?_+

"Password is grapefruit." He had no idea why they chose that for a password. He heard the camera Wildhelm held make a clicking sound.

+_Ok, give me a couple of minutes to get things ready. Will call when it's set up._+

"Don't take too long."

He turned to look at Wildhelm who was looking at the results his camera had given him. The man noticed Booker's not very pleased expression.

"Sorry, couldn't resist. Never had to chance to get a readout on someone with Infusions before. Christ, you have one of the highest level of ADAM I've ever seen. Some stuff here I don't even recognize."

As the other man puzzled out the results for the Camera, Elizabeth explained. *Drinkable Plasmids and Vigors use ten times more ADAM than injectable versions, so your ADAM level would be high.*

"Sorry can't make heads or tails out of some these results. Must be the Infusion…" Wildhelm thought for several moments. "Given the amount of ADAM in your system you're not in bad shape. Much better than I would expect actually." He looked Booker right in the eye. "That won't last long though."

"Didn't expect much different."

"It's possible that Infusion might be slowing things a little, but no way to be sure. Might make the ADAM sickness worse at some point."

"Not much to do about it now."

"No, other than taking more ADAM."

"Not something I'm going to do." he said more harshly than he intended.

Wildhelm didn't say anything, but gave him another odd look and made some adjustments to the camera.

William's voice came over the radio. +_Mr. Boston. Everything's ready._+

"Thanks, heading in now." He looked at Wildehlm.

"I think you've earned this and a lot more." he said holding out the Research Camera to Booker who carefully took it as they started walking into Athena's Glory. "It's all set up. All you need to do it take a picture, just like it was a normal camera. For best results, get close to the subject and get them in the center of the picture. It's even better if the subject is in action or there are multiple subjects. You can buy film for this in the Circus of Values."

"Thanks."

"No, thank you. Never would have made it by myself. You make a good shepherd."

He tried very hard not to wince when Wildhelm called him a shepherd. He couldn't tell if he succeeded or not. Fortunately, Wildhelm was concentrating on walking down the tracks and wasn't looking in his direction. He followed a respectful distance behind.

On the platform was a small group of people. Mary, Sam and a couple other he didn't recognize. Must be ones that joined newly Clarice's group. Standing at the front was the woman in the pictures with Wildhelm.

"Joan!" Wildhelm cried and the woman yelled "Der!" as she jumped off the platform and almost fell. But she recovered and ran to embrace him.

As the two were hugging and crying happily, he spent a few minutes talking to Sam and Mary to get a new password. They told him that the Pneumo's still worked and they could send things back forth. Mary gave him a small list of things they would find helpful if he ran across them. She promised to find a way to fairly compensate him for his trouble.

The other people were helping Wildhelm up onto the platform when he left. He was glad he was able to be a help, but they needed back to searching for Anna.

*Leaving so soon?* Elizabeth looked a little sad about having to go.

"Yes, we're leaving."

*Sorry, not often I get to see truly happy people lately. Ever, really.*

"Faster we find you, the faster you get to be happy."

She smiled a little. *You have a point.*

They made their way back up to Point Prometheus and experimented with the camera along the way. Several splicers attacked them, but none were a threat. They found out some names for the different types of splicers. Thuggish, Leadheads and Wind Walkers where just a few. They discovered that even the Big Daddies and Little Sisters could be researched and he could gain increase his Health and EVE levels. He gained a damage bonus against Rosie's, something he hoped he never had to use. By accident they found they could research corpses, though not a lot could be learned.

By the time they got to Reese Plaza they had gone through about half the film they had with them and decided to buy more. They tried to Research the Turrets and Security Camera, but it didn't work. Elizabeth figured that it was because he had Bypassed them. Have to test it out when they found something he hadn't Bypassed yet.

He almost tried to take a picture of Elizabeth, but was able to stop himself in time.

It was after lunch by the time they entered Innovation Hall at the foot of Point Prometheus. There had been a fight here while they had been gone. Seven dead bodies lay near the Securis Door that led to the Little Wonder's Facility.

*What a mess.* Elizabeth said in a disapproving tone. *One would think they would at least move the bodies from right outside an important place like this.*

"Don't have much time to clean up. Or don't care much."

*Rapture's fallen down further.*

"Not going to be pleasant to see it hit the bottom. These don't look like Atlas's people though."

*Just some ADAM hungry splicers I suppose. Those two by the door don't look spliced though.* They corpses she indicated wore business suits, not real expensive ones, but still good quality.

He tried to take a picture of each. The Research Camera gave a message of "No Subject In View" both times.

"Guess they weren't spliced." he said as he went to give them a quick search.

One had some money and a bottle of aspirin. His briefcase contained a lot of papers dealing sales and marketing. Must have been in advertising .The other had an Audio Diary.

_Baxter Jeffars: Want It Gone_

_Date: Feb 21, 1959_

_I want that bitch of a Little Sister out of here today! And don't tell me you don't know which one I'm talking about either. Last time we had to extract ADAM, I had to pump it with enough sedatives to knock out a elephant. I'm surprised we didn't kill it. Time before that, it tripped the attendant and kicked him in the nuts. I've had it up to HERE with it. The people in Artemis won't take it back, see if you can pawn it off on the idiots down in Arcadia. Whatever you do, I want it out of here now. _

"Think we found where you might be."

End Chapter 45


	46. Chapter 46

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 46

-Booker-

They were making their way back to Prosperity Way, then Fortune Avenue and from it, to Arcadia. The Audio Diary was the only information of Anna's location they had found and he wasn't going to let this tip get cold. Elizabeth had been a bit in shock for a moment after they listened to it, but recovered quickly.

*How can you be sure I'm in Arcadia? Or that he was even talking about Anna.* she paused a moment.* Let's forget I said that.*

"Think it's clear who he was talking about." He told her with a smile.

*But he said Try to send me to Arcadia, not that I had been sent there.*

"I know, but it's the only lead we've have. Even if you're not there, might find out where you went. Someone at the Point had to talk to someone in Arcadia."

*Sorry, I just don't want to get my hopes up too high.*

"I know. Whether Columbia or Rapture, always hard to get anything done."

*Always a….* she didn't sound right and her face was troubled.

"Something wrong?"

*No. Just thinking about something, it's not important.*

A few minutes later they arrived back on the Way. No time for a sit down meal, so he got some rations from the Circus of Values. He turned and looked at the Diner, which had about a dozen people in it.

Something made him look a bit more closely. He walked closer and took out the Camera.

*Booker, what are you doing?*

He didn't answer and took a picture. His blood ran cold when he saw the results.

Elizabeth's eyes went wide. *That can't be right.*

According to the camera, ten out of the twelve people in the Diner were splicers. An EVE Addict, three Leadheads, two Thugish, three Houdini and a Bruiser. The camera listed the benefits he gained by researching them.

"Don't think it's wrong." he said reluctantly. "See the big guy near the door?"

*He's similar to that Constable from this morning.* *If the percentage of splicers in the Diner is even close to being representative of the Way as a whole…*

"Want to make sure?"

*Yes. If there are that many splicers here, they would kill us both if you brought Anna back here. Or you would have to kill all of them.*

They walked back down to the Pharaoh's Fortune. A fair number of people there already. Should be easy to take a picture or two and start for Arcadia.

_Andrew Ryan asks you: Is a man not entitled to the sweat from his own brow?_

*Getting sleepy. Must be nap term, time…*

With that, she was asleep. Hoped she didn't get woken so rudely again.

There were a few people standing outside the casino smoking. Two were splicers in the early stages ADAM sickness, he wasn't sure about the third. He stayed about twenty feet away from the casino's entrance and waited a few moments. Two more people left the casino and he quickly took a picture that caught all five of them at once.

He didn't like the results. Four of them were spliced, two Leadheads, a Thugish and a Nitro according to the camera. He wondered a moment how it decided who was what? Not important.

'Does the rest of Rapture use as much ADAM as the Way?' That was a troubling thought.

He turned and started back towards the passageways that led to Fortune Avenue. Then there was loud breaking sound from above and behind him. He turned around just in time to see a man crash to the floor of the Way trailing parts of the railing with him.

To his surprise the man stood up not looking much worse for wear. "You BASTARD!" came a woman's voice from above.

A voice's owner stood at the broken railing above them. "I know you were with that Missy tramp last night!"

"Honey" the man told her in a soothing voice "I was at work last night."

"Bullshit! I went to your "work" and they said they fired you three days ago!"

"Honey, it's not what you think!"

The woman jumped down to the floor. Booker winced slightly, such a drop would have hurt him if he tried it, but she didn't even seem to notice.

"You've been out whoring around and you say it's not what I think!?" she screamed at the man.

The man suddenly hurled several Spider Splicer hooks into the woman hurting her, but not badly. "If you're legs weren't glued shut I wouldn't HAVE to go see Missy you cold bitch!"

He had the impulse to try to stop the fight, but he knew he wouldn't be able to knock either of them out. If he tried to interfere they would certainly turn on him. Only way to stop them would be to kill them.

Had better things to do.

As he turned to walk away from the fight, the woman used Sonic Boom again only to have the man jump aside. More people came out of the casino now, drawn by the sounds of combat. Some looked to be cheering while others were placing bets. He took several pictures of the two splicers fighting when he was a short distance away. Didn't want to attract attention.

As he made his way down the Way, he saw a Big Daddy and a Little Sister meandering their way down the street. He researched them but didn't get any bonuses. Looks like the more you researched, the longer it took longer for the camera to learn something new. Have to make sure to keep well stocked on film now.

Going to have to talk it over with Elizabeth, but Prosperity Way was a bomb with a lit fuse. He didn't know when it would blow or why, but it would. Likely soon.

On the walk to the remains of Fortune Avenue he checked on the abandoned workshop. Didn't look like anyone had bothered it. He spent a few minutes inside the workshop area planning things out. Anna could use the store room as a bedroom. More than enough space for a bedroll or even a cot if he could find one. Water still worked in the bathroom. It wouldn't be all that comfortable, but it would be fairly safe.

When he got to the Avenue, he took a few moments to look at the tunnel leading to the Blue Ascot. As Elizabeth had predicted, the archway was starting to collapse. Only a few small pieces of concrete had fallen so far, but he knew once started, it wouldn't stop.

Something didn't feel right, like he was being watched. He turned around quickly, but didn't see anyone.

Could there be survivors down here? If there were, they didn't want him seein' them.

He headed for the tunnel that would take him to Arcadia. This tunnel was newer version of the type that ran from the Way down to Fortune Avenue. It was in better shape and clearly had a lot of traffic at one time. Had some decorations and the roof in parts of it where glass.

He had been walking a short while when he heard something. He stopped moving to hear what it was better.

It was humming.

Elizabeth was humming. Huh. So soft no tellin' what the song was. He smiled a little, but sadly. First heard her humming a song when he found the Syphon on Monument Island. Her humming must mean she would be waking soon.

He continued walking and sure enough a couple minutes later Elizabeth asked how his lunch had been. He briefly explained that what had happened and what his thoughts were.

*Do you really think that old workshop is the best place?*

"For the moment."

*You're not ready to move into Athena's Glory yet then.*

"Hard to get anywhere from there."

*That is something to consider. Prosperity Way is more centrally located and has much better access to the Tunnels.*

"And Atlas and Ryan are fighting a stone's throw from Athena's Glory. So, you been to this Arcadia?"

*Visiting an underwater greenhouse wasn't high on my list of priorities. I did read a little about it. It's overseen by a woman named Julie Langford. She's a botanist of some repute, but not the level of Suchong or Tenenbaum. I guess some of her theories are rather radical.*

"If she works for Ryan, best to be avoided."

*Probably. I wonder though, what if we could get Ryan's people to help us a little.*

"And how could we do that?"

*Say we work for Ryan.*

Had to think a moment about that one. "Huhm. Might work. Have to be careful on who we try to grift."

*Did you pick up some of that last Comstock's memories?* She didn't sound worried, just puzzled.

"Don't think so, why?"

*You're using more modern words like grift.*

"People were using grift before I went to Columbia."

*I never saw the term in any of my books in the Tower.*

"Wasn't exactly something that the literary types would use."

*Oh, so it was slang then. Interesting how languages can change over time.*

"I guess." How languages changed really wasn't of much interest. A small part of him wouldn't have minded all that much if he had some of the last Comstock's memories. He would have much better knowledge of Rapture that way.

_Protect yourself from the bumps and bruises of everyday life. Get the new Armored Shell Gene Tonic from Ryan Industries! Evolve Today!_

The tunnel split in two. One branch going off to the right, the other straight ahead. If there had been signs here, they were long gone.

"Think Arcadia is this way." he decided looking down the tunnel that went straight ahead.

*Are you sure?* She seemed a little skeptical.

"Not positive, but should be that way."

*It's so easy to get turned around in this city.* she griped. *Guess this way is as good as the other.*

A short walk later they came to Elysium Tower. It was a mid-sized building, still lit up on the outside with advertisements despite the war. They came up to a heavy airlock door and went through it. Inside it was a medium sized shopping plaza, nearly abandoned though. Most of the stores were closed and half the lights were out. There were still a few people here, but not many. They took a few moments to look around.

"Hiking gear? Camping?" he ask looking at the advertisements. Elizabeth was leaning against a wall next to a poster advertising her as "Cohen's new songbird". She had the same hairstyle as the poster did. Part of him started to wonder about that. But the thought was crushed before it even formed and was forgotten. More important things to do.

*Arcadia is made of several different sections. Most of it is actually acres of greenhouses that provide oxygen for the city. You can rent cabins and hike if you're willing to pay to for it.*

"Not many people there then."

*Probably not anyone with Arcadia being closed down by Ryan.*

"Won't have to worry about looking through 'em then."

*I'm sure we will still have a lot of area to search for Anna.*

"Best be going then."

-Elizabeth-

It took them almost ten minutes to find the entrance to Arcadia. They had gone the wrong way and ended up at a large station for the Rapture Metro. They found two other tunnels that brought people to Arcadia as well. One was from the Welcome Center and the other from the residential section of the city. Wasn't a total waste of time though. They were able to research a Turret, a Security Camera as well as several splicers and hack the local vending machines.

They stopped in at one of the few stores that was still open, a gun shop named "Joffer's Hunting Supplies". In smaller letters beneath that was "Rapture's Premier Hunting Good Store". Neither of them could figure out what animals anyone could hunt in Rapture. The only animals she knew of were in the Rapture Zoo at Fort Frolic.

There was a guard with a shotgun watching the front door and she noticed several grates on the floor for hidden turrets. There were a number of other customers in the store, but they were all at the back where the guns were. Selling weapons was a good business to be in right now in Rapture. The front part of the store was hunting clothes and some camping equipment. Booker looked at some of it and thought it might be a good idea to get some of it on the way back.

When they got to the rear of the store Booker tried to get some rounds for his heavy revolver, but the store didn't have any. Worse, they learned that those rounds had only been produced by Fontaine Hi Power Ammo and production had ceased months ago.

On the wall of the store were several of the bolt action hunting rifles like the one Clarice's group had now. The saleswoman, who looked more like a "model" for one of the magazines down in Cupid's Arrow than anything else, was quite proud that they were the only store in Rapture that carried them. She made a mental note to remind Booker to send a message to Mary to see if she wanted more of them.

The saleswoman, her name tag said "Tabitha", actually did seem to know her weapons. She tried to sell a very ornate and expensive double barreled shotgun to her father. The weapon looked to be high quality, but as she exhorted the weapons capabilities, the innuendo got thicker and thicker. Her father's mask could only do so much it seemed.

This woman was just so... tacky.

She'd had to act a little flirtatious since coming to Rapture and pretended more providing a distraction for Comstock so he could get the Mask they needed to get into Cohen's Club, but with this Tabitha woman, it was no act and she didn't want the little tramp anywhere near her father. Part of her knew she shouldn't be worried. It wasn't like her father would hop into bed with her, but the longer she was around this "woman", the more she disliked her. Her father politely turned down both her offers and made their way out of the store.

She had to smile at the saleswoman's disappointed expression, even felt like sticking her tongue out at her.

After they stepped back out into the mall she felt a little ashamed. She was acting childish and she knew better. Even if she was a child, she shouldn't act like this, but. That. WOMAN! She spent a moment driving "Tabitha" from her thoughts and concentrating on the task at hand.

Further down the mall a man tried to come up on Booker from behind, but Booker heard him and turned to look. The man only had a club for a weapon or so she thought. When the man realized he had been seen, a bolt of electricity from the man's hand hit Booker and the splicer ran away as fast as he could. Booker let him go.

"Guess that's one way to try and mug someone." he noted a bit sadly as her hearing and vision cleared.

*A mugger? Are you sure he wasn't trying to kill you?*

"I'm sure. Not looking for a fight and he's not very good at trying to sneak around. Probably thinks he has no choice."

*He was forced into a life of crime?*

"Isn't that what happened to Jean Valjean in Les Misérables?"

*That was a fictional story.* She was a little surprised he brought up the book.

"But very nonfiction about what desperate people will do to survive. Or what they will do for their family."

She considered it a moment. *Yes, look at some of the things we've done.* she said a little sadly.

"And still doing."

*I guess we can't claim much moral high ground.*

"Not knocking people over the head are we?"

*We ARE knocking people over the head Booker.*

"But not to rob them." he quickly added.

*A Fine distinction I'm sure.* They could see the entrance to Arcadia now. Or what HAD been the entrance. It was closed off with heavy metal security gates and guarded by a Security Camera and two Turrets.

"How we going to get through that?" he asked as he moved closer while taking coved behind a support pillar. He was able to get some good research pictures on the security systems, but couldn't see a way to get past the gates. There wasn't a lock to pick or keypad they try to hack.

"Controls must be someplace else."

*Three guesses on where those controls are.*

"Ryan." her father said sourly. He started looking around. "Nothing above to hook onto."

*Look for a Maintenance Room.*

"Air Vents?"

*Unless you know a way you can break down those security gates.*

"Think that might attract attention."

They withdrew to a safe distance and started looking around for duct work or something that said maintenance. A short way down the mall they found was an unmarked door locked with a number lock. Booker didn't Bypass the lock before he hacked it, but decided to experiment with the Machine Master Gear.

Once open the door revealed a long plain corridor with another set of doors at the other end. Those doors weren't locked and opened up into a fairly large room with a large boiler, tools and all sorts of parts lying about.

*Not very organized.*

"Humph. Bet who ever runs this place knows exactly where everything is."

*You really think so?*

"Sometimes what looks like someone being sloppy is just a different type of organization."

*And sometimes is just someone being sloppy.*

"Sometimes." He walked over to one of the workbenches where there were set of building plans and an Audio Diary. The building plans were not for Elysium Tower, but another building called North Garden Hall. She hadn't heard of it and they decided to play the Audio Diary.

_Pablo Navarro: Don't worry so much_

_Date: February 22, 1959_

_Bruno, Bruno, Bruno. You need to calm down, everything is still safe. I know that Ryan shut down Arcadia, but that's no problem. I can tell you how to get inside. These bright boys, they think they know everything, but they don't. Lot'sa of other ways into Arcadia other than the front doors. Look up the plans for North Garden Hall. The north mainline vent will get you into Arcadia. No muss, no fuss and nobody will be the wiser. _

"Looks like we might have a way in."

*Might.*

"Just have to go see. Think you can figure out which vent that fella was talking about."

*Piece of cake.* Nice to be able to do a little something to help.

Booker held up the blueprints and she spent a minute looking them over. She couldn't find any vents on it. These blueprints didn't even look like a complete building.

*These aren't the right blueprints. Do you see any other ones?*

He looked around a few moments and there were none.

"Guess he… " *took them with him.* she finished saying. She was starting to think this could be a wild goose chase.

"Guess we need to find this Garden Hall place then."

*The name suggests that it's rather close to Arcadia.*

"Any place you want to start looking first?"

*We Could ask someone where it is.*

"Let's look around a little first." 'Why it is that men don't like to ask for directions?'

Stepping out into the mall they saw a splicer with a pistol chasing the mugger from earlier. The splicer was yelling at the mugger. "Give it back! Give it back!"

"Guess he tried again and it didn't work out so well."

The mugger ran down to towards the entrance to Arcadia and into range of the turrets guarding it. He was quickly cut down. Even though she had attacked Booker, the mugger's death seemed a waste to her.

The second splicer didn't stop and ran right up to the dead mugger and grabbed him still yelling "Give it back!". Before the Turrets fired on him the Security Camera focused on him and a pair of Security Bots flew to attack. Booker moved a little closer to get better pictures. The splicer finally realized the danger he was in and backed away from the turrets, but still had to fight the Security Bots. He didn't last long against them, but he did manage to hit one of Bots with Winter Blast before being killed.

The stricken Bot crashed to the floor covered in ice. Her father was able to get several good research pictures of it. After the other Bot had flown away, the remaining Bot defrosted enough to follow its partner.

*Having a frozen subject makes research a lot easier." she observed. *It's also easier to get behind someone to knock them out when they thaw. I did that with Old Man Winter.*

"Guess we should keep an eye open for whatever shoots that liquid nitrogen then. Let's get back to looking."

Five minutes later she was starting to getting impatient. *Booker, just go ask someone where it is.*

"Who do you want me to ask? Splicers more likely to attack then answer."

*You can ask that saleswoman at Joffer's.* 'I can't believe I said that.'

He considered it a moment. "Be best to give her a little incentive to give a good answer."

*And what kind of "incentive" would that be?* She asked accusingly.

"Buy something. What did you think I meant?"

*Oh, nothing.* she hastily covered. Not that she thought Booker was fooled for even a moment. *So what are you going to buy?*

He had turned and was walking back to the gun shop.

"Rifle ammo. Should be easy enough to send through the Pneumo."

*For Clarice's people.* It wasn't a bad idea. *You could send some pistols down as well. Be nice if you could send a few machine guns.*

"Might attract a little attention doin' that."

*Ryan. In other circumstances I would say you're being overly cautious. But now you mention it, I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't spying on what was going through the Pneumos. Think they might recognize machine gun parts?*

"Hard to hide a gun barrel. Worry about that later."

They walked back to the gun store as she started to reconsider if this was a good idea. The saleswoman greeted her father with a very friendly smile and leaned forward on the counter while swaying her ample chest suggestively. 'I wonder how much work did Steinman on her.'

"Forget something big boy?"

"Decided to pick up some spare ammo for a friend. Four boxes of Thirty-aught-six."

"This friend as handsome as you?" Tabitha asked.

"It's a lady."

"Oh, that can be even more fun." Is she actually suggesting….!

"Not that kind of friend."

"She's missing out. Would you like it wrapped?"

"No."

She put the boxes in a small bag. "That will be a hundred thirty six dollars."

As her father was paying the saleswoman "Gotten a bit turned around. Happen to know where North Garden Hall is from here?"

The smile on the saleswoman's face vanished. "You don't really want to go there."

"No choice, got business there."

Tabitha seemed very unhappy to hear that. "Heard some crazy doomsday cult took the Garden over yesterday."

"Hadn't heard about that. Don't think it'll last long when Ryan decides to move."

"Hope it's soon. The Garden's a nice place. If you go there, be careful, will you?"

She hated to admit it, but there might be a little more to Tabitha than she first thought. She was honestly worried about Booker.

"Know how to take care of myself. So, how do I get there?"

Tabitha looked down for an instant then looked up, clearly not happy about giving Booker directions. "Go down towards the Metro and take the tunnel on the left. Go through the first intersection and at the second one, take a right."

"Thank you." her father told her.

"Hey, remember what I said about being careful, will ya?"

"Don't worry. Sure I've handled worse."

They left the store and Booker headed back towards the Metro.

*I'm a little bit unclear on exactly what a doomsday cult is.* She'd seen the term a few time, but it was just in passing.

"Fools think the world's going to end because some "prophet" told 'em so."

*At least we don't have to worry about the prophet knowing what we're going to do ahead of time.* She couldn't help but poke Booker a little. *Unless they're a real prophet."

He glanced to the side for a moment. "Don't care if they're a real prophet or not. Just want to get into Arcadia without a fight.

*Do you Really think that going to happen?*

He sighed. "Not a chance."

End Chapter 46

Author's Notes: Yes, I decided to create some new "types" of splicers. The precedent for this was established in Burial At Sea where the Frosty Splicer was introduced and the references made to the (Shock) Jockey. Like the new splicers from Burial at Sea, these new types of splicers are either extinct or exist in very few numbers by the time Jack arrives in 1960 and so he never encounters them.

It's also possible that some of the Thugish (And Nitro?) Splicers that Jack encounters are actually one of these new classes of splicers, but they can no longer use their Plasmids due to the nerve damage inherent in ADAM use.

New Splicer Types

Bruiser: A splicer built for hand to hand combat. Physically very strong, resistant to injury and tend to be very aggressive. Can be thought of a very early version of the Brute Splicer from Bioshock 2.

Controller: Uses Plasmids and Tonics that control or influence people and security systems. Common Plasmids are Enrage, Security Bullseye, Control Big Daddy (if available), Possession or Target Dummy and Tonics useful in Hacking. This Splicer may accompanied by a Security Bot.

EVE Addict: A class of Splicer that has Plasmids and Tonics useful in combat, but no real strength or theme.

Frosty: Seen in Burial at Sea, Episodes 1 &amp; 2.

Jockey: The name expanded from those that used Shock Jockey to encompass all Splicers that use mainly electrical based Plasmids and Tonics.

Wind Walker: A splicer with mainly "air" based Plasmids such as Aerodash, Sonic Boom and Cyclone Trap.


	47. Chapter 47

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 47

-Elizabeth-

The route out of Elysium Tower was one of the glass tunnels allowing them a view of the building all around them. The buildings in this part of Rapture were shorter than most, but off in the distance they could see the taller ones of the Welcome Center and residential district. She thought she even caught a glimpse of Point Prometheus.

As they got closer to North Garden Hall they started to notice signs of fighting and the occasional dead body. Then they came to the second intersection and found a waist high barricade along with three bodies. The first body was that of someone from Rapture Security. The other two people looked like they had been using the barricade for cover before being killed. Both of them had blue and gold armbands on.

*Looks like Ryan sent Security to put an end to this cult.*

"Might make it easier to get in."

*Unless Rapture Security gets in the way.*

"Then, it'll be harder."

Booker climbed over the barricade and hesitated a moment, then continued. She had the suspicion he was going to try to help her over the barricade. He was getting worse, but he was still fighting it. But how long can you fight your own mind? She was going to have to start considering what could happen if started to believe she was physically with him.

Booker researched the dead and found an Audio Diary on the remains of young woman. She didn't think the girl was even seventeen yet.

_Flo Smyth: Our Sanctuary_

_February 23, 1959 _

_The Sanctuary is ours and the Chamber of the Oriel is safe. As Brother Jacob said, the damned were unprepared and fell before us. We spared only those that will be use to use in the days ahead and the rest were exiled. We must ready ourselves. The Hollow King will soon try to destroy us. Already the Serpent with his honeyed words tried to convince the Brother Jacob to join his cause, but Brother Jacob knew that it is the path to being devoured. Only our Brothers and Sisters in this Sanctuary will survive the holocaust that is to come. _

*That's not quite what I had imagined a doomsday cult would preach.*

"Sounds like this place is supposed to be an ark." her father said with a tone of disgust.

*Didn't you tell Lisa to find someplace to hole up?*

"Difference between holing up and thinking it's a new Noah's Ark."

Wasn't hard to figure out her father was seeing a parallel between Comstock calling Columbia an ark and what this Larson was doing. Of course all of Rapture was an ark for when the world destroyed itself with atomic weapons. *So the Hollow King must be Ryan and Atlas is the Serpent. Rather fitting descriptions in a way.*

"Very poetic."

Further down the tunnel was a heavy airlock door that had a dead body propped up next to it. Like the other two corpses by the barricade, it had a blue and gold armband on.

*Seems those armbands are used by Larson's people.*

There was a piece of paper on the floor near the body. It was a wanted poster featuring a middle aged man with a crew cut. Booker read it out loud.

"Jacob Larson. Wanted for Smuggling, Theft and Attempted Murder."

The first crime was centered on the page in a large typeface. The other two charges were below it in a smaller print.

*They're willing to pay 5,000 dollars for him. Is that a date at the bottom?*

"August 21st 1958."

*Would seem that Larson's problems started even before Fontaine was taken down.*

"Given the smuggling charges, might be connected in some way. Seem real worried about smuggling down here."

*Ryan's paranoid about Rapture being found and he considers smuggling THE major threat to the city's secrecy.*

"Don't see why smuggling would be that big a threat. Smuggler wouldn't talk about Rapture."

*They wouldn't?*

"Place is easy money for 'em. Can't see why Ryan thinks that someone won't find this place by accident."

*I suppose someone will. Rapture's can't move around like Columbia.* *Now that I think about it, I'm surprised Rapture hasn't been found already.*

"Really?"

*There's a way to finding things underwater, they call it SONAR. It works by listening to sound waves in the water. Some send out pulses of sound that reflect off of objects. These reflected sound waves can then be heard. Others are passive and listen for sounds generated by ships and submarines as they move. Water is an excellent medium for sound, even small sounds can be heard miles away with the proper equipment.*

"And Rapture makes a lot of noise."

*Yes. People on the surface may already know about Rapture. Or that something is out here at least.*(1)

"Maybe it's a Constant for cities like Columbia and Rapture are cut off, even if people know about 'em." He said it idly, but it made her uneasy for some reason. Rapture had many more Constants in common with Columbia that she had expected and she didn't really want to discover any more of them.

*Let's get going. I have a feeling that finding our way into Arcadia isn't going to be simple.*

Booker hit the lever that opened the Securis door. It revealed a wide corridor relatively undamaged by fighting. They cautiously walked down it to a short corridor that branched off to the left. At the end was a set of doors with a signs above them saying "Maintenance Shop". On the doors were signs saying "Employees Only". The door opened automatically as they approached.

Only about half the lights were on in the room, but there was still enough light to see. As the sign had said it was a small machine shop. The equipment didn't look damaged, but nearly half of it seemed to be missing. Booker looked down at the floor and there were recent drag marks.

"Someone moving this stuff someplace else."

*Probably to a safer location inside the building.*

"Getting ready to stand on their own I guess."

They spent a short time searching and found some money, coffee, a pineapple and a Gear hidden in a locker. It was called Shock Wave. When you hit someone, there was a 70% chance that the target will be knocked away in a way similar to being hit with the Sonic Boom Plasmid.

"Not as good as Undertow, but it'll do." Booker said almost to himself.

When Booker opened the last locker a box of popcorn fell out of it and spilled on the floor. He just looked at it for several seconds before shaking his head a little. He seemed a little unsteady.

*Booker?*

"Sorry, thought I saw, remembered... something."

*What did you see?*

"It was dark. I think...Anna, you were there. There was popcorn on the ground."

*Anna spilled my popcorn?* That didn't that come out right. Still what he saw didn't seem that important.

"Yeah, and something..." He shook his head a moment. "Forget about it. Seeing things can bring back odd memories at times. Best be back to looking."

They didn't find anything that might point them in the direction of the "North Mainline Vent" they wanted. They went back out into the corridor and to the next door which was on the right side. This turned out to be a pump room. Her father looked around quickly and found an Audio Diary.

_Jacob Larson: Revelation_

_Date: October 28, 1958 _

_Came to Rapture and grab the brass ring. That's why I came. To prove I had what it took. Then I see everyone else getting rich, but not me. So when Fontaine asked me to help him out, thought that it was my big chance. But Rapture Security got wind and Ryan started hanging people. Only choice was to run. Had to hide in old tunnel's, maintenance shafts, even a cave once. Always kept moving. And that was when I found it. The Oriel where God showed me... Paradise on Earth. _

*Showed him what?*

"Something that changed how this Larson looked at things I guess."

They went back out into the corridor and towards the end. A short distance from the door was a shop named "JJ's Flower Emporium". It was filled with dead and dying flowers and decorative plants. There was a dead body tied to a chair in the middle of the room. It had been a woman, but there was little more than that they could tell. She had been beaten and bloody tools on a nearby table spoke to more than fists being used. The blood on the floor hadn't even fully dried yet.

*Someone certainly wanted something from her.*

"Information on Larson and his people most likely." He looked around the shop for a moment, but didn't see anything that would be of use. As they went to leave, Booker noticed something on the floor next to a woman's purse and reached down to pick it up. It was a card partially covered in blood, but there was something drawn on it. Several things in fact.

The first was a bathysphere, below it a knife, then two crossed keys and then two books. It looked like someone had been doodling.

Booker put the card down on a table before he searched the rest of the shop.

They found another dead body, this time wearing a Rapture Security uniform. His hands had been badly burned. It reminded her of the Jockey's victims down in Fontaine's.

They walked to the end of the corridor which was blocked by a reinforced metal door. The door had a number lock on it. He worked with it a moment.

"Huh. Someone spent some time on this. Can't get at the insides to hack it."

*Think an Auto Hack would work?*

"Let's see." he said as he pulled one out. He put the tool to work and there was a blinding flash that dissolved into static. An electrical shock and a powerful one. A surprise attack? No, something else. She hated it when the Communication Plasmid was disrupted. She want to know what was happening. That Booker was safe.

It took almost a minute for it to clear enough so she could hear and see again. Her father was standing a short way down the corridor from the door, no enemies in sight. *Are you ok, Booker?*

*Shield took the worst of it.* His voice still sounded a bit fuzzy.

*Did the tool work?*

His eyes shifted to the floor beneath the number lock. There was a pile of melted plastic and fused metal that still smoked slightly.

*That Wasn't an accident.*

"Some kind of trap. Likely what killed him." he said looking at the dead man from Rapture Security.

*The code to the door. That's what Ryan's men wanted from that woman.*

"Think they got it."

*If this door actually works. A sealed door would be a good way to buy time.*

"Larson's people had to get outside…"

*And you don't guard sealed doors. So what else can we do? Blow it open?*

"Don't have anything that would do much more than scratch the paint." he said with a slightly irritated tone. He looked back at the flower shop for a moment. "Let me try something."

He walked up to the door and carefully punched 0, 1, 2, 2 into the number lock. To her surprise the door opened.

*How did you know?* she demanded in astonishment.

"The card." He seemed a bothered by something.

*Zero, One, two, two.* 'A simple pictorial code. I should have seen it.' *Let's get going before something else happens.*

-Booker-

The open door showed a large round atrium with a dome made of steel and glass for a roof. At floor level it looked like it had been a small park. Benches, flowers, bushes and a food stand in the center. Might have been nice looking except the seven dead bodies in Rapture Security uniforms.

With the Tommy Gun at ready he stepped through the door. The atrium had two exits, a small doorway to the right and a wide archway ahead and to the left. Beyond the archway there was a wide corridor leading to doors that must go further into the building. They walked up to the nearest dead Constable and looked him over. Signs of gunfire and Combat Plasmids.

*An ambush. And whoever did it took anything of useful afterward.*

They looked around the bodies a little more and noticed that there were a bullet holes in the dirt floor near the bodies. *Some of whatever killed them fired from up high.* He looked up but didn't see any place someone could fire from. Didn't think Spider Splicers could fire a machine gun and hold on to the walls at the same time.

*The fire must have been from Security Bots.*

"Unless there's a Plasmid that makes you fly."

Booker researched the dead bodies discovering they were mostly unspliced with a two Thugish and a Leadhead Splicer. Managed to get another research level on the Thugish and Leadhead. All he got for it were the formulas for two Gene Tonics he wouldn't be using.

Elizabeth was closely looked over the dead with a skeptical expression. *I don't think Ryan put his best people on this job.*

He started to respond when most of the lights went out. He instantly took cover behind the food stand, positioning himself to watch both entrances.

There was a brief burst of static and a man's voice came over a loudspeaker. The voice was fairly deep and full of righteous confidence.

_You have not been given permission to enter our Sanctuary, snake. Who sent you? The Hollow King or the Serpent?_

"No use being quiet now." he muttered to himself and then yelled loud enough so whoever it was could hear. "Here on my own business. Just looking to pass through, got no quarrel with you or your people."

_Your words betray you snake, for they are proof the Serpent sent you. Here is where you shall die snake, for God has rejected you! _

"I'm not looking for any trouble." Had a bad feeling about this.

*Booker, I think we should try to find another way into Arcadia.*

"Yeah, think your right." He left the cover of the food stand heading for the door that led out. When they got there, it refused to open. The door control on this side had been taken off and a metal plate welded over it. Must be controlled from someplace else.

_You're not leaving snake. You have tainted this place and the only way to wash the stain clean is with your blood._

"Said not looking for a fight!"

_There shall be no fight. Just the boot of God crushing a snake's head. _

*Larson's lost his mind.* Elizabeth was looking around for a way to open the door.

"Think Ryan knows what's going on in here?"

*His men wouldn't have ambushed if he did.*

_Bother Macy, Brother Amherst! Deal with this snake!_

*He certainly likes to call you a snake. He needs to expand his vocabulary a little.*

*Least it's not False Shepard.* he told her as he looked around to plan for the fight ahead.

He put a Devil's Kiss trap just the other side of the large archway. Food stand was too flimsy, rocks would be best. He almost told Elizabeth to get under cover before he stopped himself.

He crouched down behind several rocks that gave him a good view of the doors and loaded the revolver with Incendiary Rounds. Had a feeling that every shot might count. Less than a minute later he heard the sound of the Security Bots. More than one, three? The sound of two people running accompanied them.

*Here they come.*

They saw two of the Bots first, but only for a moment, then the Trap exploded and consumed them. The first Bot crashed and exploded. A moment later the second did the same. One left now.

The last Bot flew through the fading flames and he hit it with Possession before it could fire. The Bot wobbled in the air a moment and flew towards Booker to hover over him protectively. Great, now they would know exactly where he was.

It was about twenty seconds before Larson's two men leaned around the right side of the archway and started shooting. He hit one, but was forced to duck down behind the rocks. Two machines guns was little too much to expect his Shield to take for long. The one he shot started screaming as he caught on fire from the incendiary ammo and the Bot made shrill whistling sounds as it moved to attack. The uninjured attacker started to fire on the Bot and it shot back.

He looked from cover and saw that the splicer he had already hit was gone. He fired twice at the remaining one, who caught fire and fell. But as he did, the Security Bot followed crashed and exploded. He quickly moved up to the archway a quickly looked around the corner. The other splicer wasn't there.

He went around the corner and noticed foot prints burnt into the carpet. He brought out the shotgun and followed the foot prints down the corridor to an intersection. The footprints went around a corner and when Booker followed, he nearly stepped on the dead man's body.

*I wonder how Larson is going to react to this.*

"Badly." he stated without humor as he reloaded the revolver. Only six of the Incendiary Rounds left.

She rolled her eyes. *I was thinking more of a specific course of action.*

_Your venom is strong, snake. But we are the Chosen! This Sanctuary is not for the likes of you!_

Larson was starting to get on his nerves. Sounded too much like Comstock. "Well, know he's going to rant."

She made a face. *They ALL seem to do that.*

"Either send more people after me or fortify his position. Maybe both."

*If they stay in one spot we might be able to avoid any more confrontations.*

Little chance on that, but she knew that as well as he did. "So where next?"

*Let's go back the way we came. We passed a door on the right.*

They backtracked to the door which opened easily. It opened onto a short corridor that ended in a room with pumps and small pipes running all over. There was another door on the far side of the room that had been blocked. Figured the atrium was on the other side of it.

*Hmm. This must be part of the water supply system for the plants. Without this, many of the plants would shrivel up and die.*

"Unless someone went around with a watering can."

*It would have to be a very big can.*

They found some Hop Up cola, three pieces of brass tubing and an Audio Diary. The voice on the tape was a woman's, sounded older.

_Samantha Gomez: Trapped With The Mad_

_Date Feb 23, 1959_

_I knew I should have paid more attention to what was going on downstairs. I noticed this man, Larson, months ago talking to people. Started hearing rumors that he was giving sermons someplace in the lower levels. Never thought anything of it. Then he and his "flock" attacked. They took over the Hall and half my staff helped him! Most of the rest were exiled, whatever that means. I hope they're safe. Now he's preaching about how he was chosen by God to gather the believers and bring them to this sanctuary while the world and Rapture destroy themselves. _

*Guess Larson believes in Ryan's prediction about the world destroying itself.*

"Larson doesn't like Ryan, why would he believe 'em?" Didn't fit and he didn't like it. Something else going on.

*It doesn't make sense to me either. I think we have bigger issues than where Larson got his beliefs from. So what do we do now?*

"Don't think he'll ever believe I'm not here to fight him. Best to make him sweat a little, get him to make mistakes."

*Such as sending out people after you?*

They walked out of the pipe room and turned away from the Atrium to where Larson's man had died. "Hope he does. Dividing forces is usually a bad thing to do." They came up to the intersection and he took a moment to search the dead splicer. There was a door at the end of the corridor he started in that direction before Elizabeth reminded him of something.

*Aren't you going to use the research camera? Every little bit helps.*

"Forgot about that." He took at the camera and researched the body. Seems he had been an EVE Addict, though what the camera didn't say what Plasmids he had. Managed to the second research level for the "EVE Addicts" and got another Tonic Formula. "EVE Saver" this time. He did a fast search of the body and found a diamond ring, an EVE Syringe and a thermos of tea. The tea helped his EVE level, but it was still lower than he liked. Hoped they found of Circus of Values soon.

They continued down the corridor and through the door into some kind of laboratory filled with plants. Elizabeth looked around with interest. No, she didn't. She wasn't here. She wasn't really here. Remember that.

*Looks like they did work with breeding plants here.*

"Horticulture?"

*I guess you did expand your vocabulary. I must be a positive influence on you.* she said with a small smile.

A quick search of the area turned up a Tonic called Prolific Inventor, a wallet with thirty two dollars, three Chlorophyll Solutions and a battery. Many of the papers they found had a Langford Research Laboratories letterhead. They left the lab and headed back in the direction of the Atrium.

_What are doing snake? _

"Just stoppin' to smell the flowers. You should try it sometime."

_You try to hide from your fate snake, but God's judgement will find you!_

"Not tryin' to hide. Not looking to hurt anyone either."

_More LIES! Your kind thirsts for blood! _

He couldn't help but smile sadly at that. "How many people did you kill taking over this place? Twenty, thirty, sixty? More?"

_This was ceded to us by God to be our Sanctuary, snake! It is God's will! Those who have turned away from God's light have earned their fate!_

"And it just so happens that anyone who gets in your way has turned away from God's light, right?"

_Snake! Heretic! You shall d… _

Larson's voice cut off mid word. Guess someone decided that the conversation did more harm than good.

*If you wanted to make Larson angry, you succeeded admirably.*

"Though might get lucky and someone start to question Larson."

*Do you really think there is a chance of that?*

"Not much." he admitted sadly. Larson was willing to put children into a fight and that meant there was little he wouldn't do to control this place.

They shortly arrived back at the archway to the Atrium and he took a picture of corpse there. Another Leadhead. He searched the body and found a shortwave radio. He changed the channel on his own to match it. Elizabeth thought they might be able to listen in on Larson's orders to his people. They had the choice of going down the main corridor or the side corridor off to the left. They decided on the side corridor. Better chance of finding the vent they were looking for and it would make Larson and his people sweat a little more.

They found several small shops, a small photography studio where they found some more film and a small fruit stand. They noticed drag marks on the floor that went around a corner. As the got close to the corner Larson's voice came over the radio.

+_Brother Jim, the snake is headed for you. Protect yourself, kill him if you can._+

+_But Brother Jacob, I'm all alone down here. I only got two Turrets outside and a Bot with me._+

+_You must be strong Brother. I'm sending help._+

+_Yes, Brother Jacob._\+ Brother Jim didn't sound all that happy, but was still determined.

He started reloading his shotgun with Electric Buck. Had a feeling he would need it.

Since there where certainly Turrets and Bots involved he switched to the Ghost in the Machine and Machine Master Gears. As he walked down the hall his left leg felt...odd. Not like the itching before. Would have to look at it later.

They looked around a corner and ahead of them was a set of doors flanked by a pair of Turrets. He ducked back out of sight before they turned to fire on him.

*Might be a good opportunity to research some Turrets.*

He had been reaching for the camera, but she couldn't see that. The research on the Turrets quickly hit the next level. He then Bypassed and then walked up to hack them.

*You want to do that now?*

*Yeah, if Larson is sending someone down there to help Brother Jim these should give some warning and slow them down.*

*Just like the warning they're giving "Brother Jim" right now.* She said a little sarcastically.

*Better than nothing.*

Between the Gear and Bypass Plasmid, hacking the Turrets went quickly. He took a moment and set a Bucking Bronco Trap at the corner. Anyone coming around the corner would set off the trap and be an easy target for the Turrets. He noticed that the drag marks they had found earlier went under the door. He had the shotgun at ready and ready to go through the door when the shortwave came to life.

+_Brother Jacob, where is he? You said he was…._+

+_Be calm Brother. Brothers Walt, Kasper and Yack are on their way down. You must be strong and delay the snake for as long as you can._+

+_But…_+

*Time to go.*

He went through the door and into a room beyond. It looked like a machine shop. On the other side of the room behind a low counter there was a man in a leather apron and welders goggles with a shortwave in one hand and a machine gun on the counter in front of him. A single Bot hovered near him.

Jim dropped the short wave and screamed "SHIT!" as he went for the Tommy Gun.

Booker fired once hitting the splicer with the Electric Buck and shocking him. The Bot whistled and turned to attack him, but his second shotgun blast blew it out of the air before it could fire. He started to get out his Tommy Gun, but switched to the Camera and quickly took three pictures.

Every little bit helps.

As the shock wore off, Booker raised the Tommy Gun, pointing it right at the splicer's face. Brother Jim didn't move, but looked down at the weapon on the counter.

"Try it and you die. Now step back." he told the man. 'How devoted are Larson's people?'

Over the short wave came Larson's demanding voice. +_Brother Jim, what's happening? You need to keep the snake busy._+

Brother Jim made up his mind and grabbed for the Tommy Gun. No choice.

*Fanatics.* Elizabeth's voice contained both sadness and disgust as she looked down at the nearly headless corpse.

"Wish I was surprised."

*The only way they'll stop fighting is if Larson is dead.* she said sourly.

"Maybe not then even."

They took a quick look around the room. It was a workshop for making or at least repairing Security Bots and Turrets. They found several of each in various states of being assembled or disassembled. Was a U-Invent here, but they didn't have time for it yet. He reloaded with weapons and switched out the standard rounds in the autopistol for anti-personnel ones.

+_Brother Jim! Be strong! Help is almost there!_+

Felt like getting on the radio and angering Larson a little more, but it would let Larson know he could hear him. On a back counter they found an Audio Diary and a on the shelf below it an Infusion which he used to boost his Health.

Larson wouldn't shut up. +_Brother Walt, you must catch this snake and crush it!_+

+_Yes Brother Jacob!_\+ came the eager response.

Suddenly both Turrets in the corridor started firing.

*Sounds like Larson's men are here.*

"Guess it's best not to let them leave."

End Chapter 47

(1) The US Navy deployed a series of listening stations in the North Atlantic in the 1950's to track Soviet subs under the project name SOSUS. The system does not seem to have gone into full operation until 1961 though sensors active before that certainly would have picked up all the noise from Rapture. Rapture is also close to the Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom Gap. (GIUK Gap) This is the region is a natural bottleneck that Soviet submarines would have to pass through to get from the Norwegian Sea to the North Atlantic. Because of this, the US and British Navies patrolled the region heavily during the Cold War. In other words, Rapture is sitting near one of the most heavily patrolled areas in the world at the time and the patrols were looking for things underwater.

In Bioshock 2, or rather the "There's Something in the Sea ARG"it seems that world governments did know something was there and that Ryan had set up defenses around Rapture. What these defenses were is only hinted at but they are able to take down aircraft and ships. Most of which don't get a message off and the few that did gave little information on what was attacking them.


	48. Chapter 48

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 48

-Booker-

A moment after the Turrets started firing, additional gunfire started. Sounded like Security Bot's.

*You better do some research.*Elizabeth told him as he moved to the door.

Actually had forgotten it this time. As the door opened there where three Security Bots firing on the two Turrets he had hacked earlier. He quickly took three pictures, but didn't want to risk his Turrets being destroyed. The first Bot fell to the ground and exploded as he drew a bead on the second one. One shot from the shotgun destroyed it but as he turned to the last Bot, one of his own turrets exploded.

As the last Bot exploded, a man in the mismatched suit and a gas mask came around the corner with a machine gun only to run into the Bucking Bronco Trap. The Turret opened fire on the flailing man as he switched to his machine gun and joined in. In moments the man was dead and Booker sprinted up to the corner.

Might be able to catch the others by surprise.

He rounded the corner and found one of Larson's men still under the effect of the Bronco and another with a shotgun who hadn't been caught in the trap. Booker opened up on the splicer being held in the air, killing him just as the Bronco's effects wore off.

As he killed the first man, the other had hit him with a shotgun blast nearly taking down his Shield. Booker retreated back around the corner to let it regenerate and reload.

The last splicer followed Booker around the corner and walked right into the fire from the remaining Turret. With surprising speed the splicer activated an Air Shield Plasmid, preventing the turret from hitting him.

He finished reloading as the splicer slowly backed around the corner and out of the turret's line of fire.

"Any new ideas on getting through that Air Shield of his?"

*The electrical charge from the Air Grabber should go through it or just wait until he runs out of EVE like the other one did.*

Couldn't let this last splicer get away even though his Shield hadn't to recover yet. He went around the corner and took a hit from the shotgun which broke his Shield and hit him. He opened fire with the Tommy Gun at the same time, but only a few rounds hit Larson's man before he put the Air Shield back up.

The man continued to back away, but slowly. The Plasmid slowed one down when it was active so this splicer wasn't going to be able to make a run for it with it up.

Charge might get through the Shield, but best to try the Air Grabber first. He switched to his shotgun in case the splicer dropped his shield again and walked closer. He could see the hate in the man's face. A bolt of lightning shot from the Air Grabber passed through the Air Shield to strike the splicer and his Shield dropped.

Booker quickly stepped behind the shocked splicer and hit him to knock him out. The man stood seemingly unaffected by the blow. Damn. Might was well try the new Gear. His next blow slammed the splicer into the wall of the corridor with a loud crash and sound of breaking bones. The splicer's dead body slid to the floor to rest in a heap.

"Least the Gear works." he muttered as he got out the Camera.

+_Brother Walt? Brother Jim? What has happened?_+

He brought out the short wave and turned down the volume and researched the dead bodies. Two Leadheads and an EVE Addict.

*I wonder…* Elizabeth started only to be interrupted by Larson on the radio.

+_I am sorry brothers. I gave you too great a task. I know now what we face. The Lord warned me, but I did not see. Your sacrifice shall be remembered and will have not been in vain. You have showed us what we must face._+

*As I Was Saying,* she said and glared at the short wave. *I wonder if Larson is crazy enough to try and send the rest of his people after us.*

"He might, best be done here quickly."

*On the bright side, it doesn't seem that whatever he is using to watch us doesn't cover the entire building.*

_Demon! We will not allow you to destroy The Sanctuary! _

*You're a demon now. I wonder if you'll make to the "Devil Himself" before this is over.*

"Guess that'd make you the Devil's Daughter."

*Well, that's still better than being called "The Lamb."*

He reloaded his weapons and the Air Grabber before searching the bodies. Some money, standard ammunition for a shotgun and Tommy Gun, an EVE Hypo and an apple. He'd hoped for something to raise his EVE level some that didn't involve shoving a needle in his arm. Maybe something in the workshop.

They walked back to the workshop and searched it quickly. It was mostly tools, but there were two bananas, some crackers and bandages. Feeling better. Elizabeth was looking around, no, no Elizabeth was not looking around. Damn. He picked up a small bunch of carrots sitting on a counter.

"Seem to be a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables in here."

*Well, it is supposed to be a garden.*

"That it is."

*After Larson's gone you should see if you can make an arrangement with the next person to control this place.*

"Arrangement for what?"

*Fresh food of course. I doubt my diet has been very good since I've been here.*

"Think you might start eating your beets now?"

*Beets?* She made a face as she considered the prospect. He got the notion that she probably wouldn't.

They went to the U-Invent Machine, which he hacked and made six more rounds of Incendiary Ammo for the Heavy Revolver. He was pretty sure it would be the last time be able make any. He also made some Exploding Buck and another Auto Hack Tool.

They headed back down the corridor and to the entrance to the main part of the building. They went through the first set of doors into a passageway about forty feet long. The walls of the passageway were covered in vines and flowers. About halfway down there was a door on the left side. They almost missed it, covered in plants as it was.

Despite the vines, the door opened easily to show what looked to be an office of some sort. But there were also mops, basic repair tools and lockers here as well. Must be for the janitors and the like. Elizabeth took a few moments to look at the schedules posted on the walls next to the door.

On the desk was an Audio Diary. The man's voice on it had a slight Italian accent

_Bruno Morelli: Not to Worry He Said _

_February 23, 1959_

_Pablo said it was going to be real easy. Right! Five minutes after I get here some religious nutjobs take over the place! Should have known never to listen to him. Everyone that does ends up getting screwed one way or another. _

_Been able to hide so far, but I gotta get out of here before they find me. Can't get out the way I came in. Only chance now is getting into Arcadia. It's locked down, but it's got to be better than this place! _

"Best bet is to follow Bruno."

*At least we will get into Arcadia that way.* Elizabeth agreed.

A search turned up some Hop Up Cola, a diamond ring and some crackers. They left the room and went down the corridor to the three sets of door. He stood by one of them for a short time and listened. There was the sound of distant machinery, but nothing else.

He slowly pushed open the door and looked through. The next room was round with an domed ceiling and small alcoves lining the wall. In the center was a massive thirty foot tall Art Deco statue of a woman holding a torch and... wheat? In the alcoves were paintings and even a few small statues of fruits and vegetables. Place almost looked like some kinda of shrine. On the opposite side of the room was a large archway. They couldn't see much as the statue blocked their view.

*I think the statue is supposed to be Demeter. She's the Greek goddess of Agriculture.*

They entered the room and took cover at the base of the statue. They could see the next room now. Room wasn't the right term. It was a huge three story hall with pillars along the walls and a large balcony at the far end. There was a large archway at the far end of the hall below the balcony and a set of doors halfway down the Hall on the right hand side. Most of the floor was covered with plants loaded with vegetables and the occasional small tree ripe with fruit. Never seen plants produce that much before. Near the far end of the hall there were giant versions of apples, bananas and different vegetables. Must be some kind of props for advertising.

*Oh, they produce those here.*

"Produce what?"

*The giant fruit at the far end.*

"People can eat those?"

*Yes. I never tried one, but I saw them advertised enough. When ADAM came along they used it to improve their food. If that's actually an improvement.* her voice held a note of distrust.

He'd seen more than a few unnatural things, but for some reason those giant fruit seemed like one of the worst. They just seemed wrong somehow. What would eating those things do to a person?

Twenty five feet off the floor were several heavy rails, looked a lot like Skylines. Would be useful in a fight.

*Those rails seem to be part of an automated system for keeping the plants watered.*

"Big water buckets?" he asked innocently.

*No. Water hoses controlled by…* She gave him a look. *Very funny.*

"Starting to sound a little too much like a teacher."

*And I bet you were an excellent student in school.* she said sarcastically.

"Wasn't much of a school to be a student at."

He advanced to the right side of archway and no one tried to shoot at him. He took another look around the room. To damn many places for someone to ambush him from.

*What are you going to do?*

"Not much I can. Going to have to run for it."

-Elizabeth-

Booker picked out a tree he thought there would give him the most cover and sprinted towards it with the heavy revolver in his hand. Ten feet from the archway a rifle shot rang out. A miss! But not by much, the round had just passed over her father's shoulder. The sniper was up on the balcony at the other end of the Hall.

She was glad this wasn't Columbia. The Vox Snipers wouldn't have missed.

_Kill him Sister Martha! Kill the demon before he destroys the Sanctuary!_ Larson screamed over the speaker system.

Booker slammed to a halt and brought up the pistol. He was going to try to hit the sniper with it. He carefully aimed down and fired. Missed. The revolver roared again just as the sniper fired.

Booker's Shield shattered and he quickly got behind the tree. She thought he hit the sniper, but wasn't sure. Booker quickly used a First Aid Kit then peeked around the side of the tree. There was a figure engulfed in flames flailing around on the balcony.

Booker brought out the autopistol and aimed it, but before he could fire, the burning figure fell off the balcony. The figure's scream cut off with a wet thump. He put his back to a tree. On either side of the archway they had just ran through were two sets of doors. One the left was advertising itself as the "Fruit Lounge" in big neon letters, while the doors on the right had a much plainer sign saying "Employees Only".

Just as he started to relax a little, the Fruit Lounge's doors slammed open and three more of Larson's people stormed out. One man had a shotgun, another a pistol while the woman had flaming hands. They yelled out things like "Kill the demon" and "Save the Sanctuary!".

Her father snapped off two shots quickly as he moved behind the other side of the tree for cover. His Shield had yet to recover he was hit by two pistol rounds as well as some pellets from the shotgun. A fireball impacted the tree he used for cover. The set of doors with the "Employees Only" sign slid open allowing two more attackers into the Hall. One armed with a Tommy Gun, the other a pistol. Booker was caught in a crossfire.

He switched to the shotgun and brought up the Charge Vigor. He was hit but another pistol round as he built up the power of the Vigor for a moment. The power of the Vigor was unleashed on the man with the shotgun. The man wasn't a splicer and was killed instantly. Her father spun to the left firing the shotgun into the fireball throwing splicer while ignoring the one with the pistol. The Electric Buck shocking her.

Sprinting up to the immobilized splicer, Booker hit her with the Air Grabber twice. The second time the Shock Wave Gear smashed her away. As Booker had been fighting the splicer he had taken repeated hits, but his Shield was back up after using the Vigor and absorbed them without a problem. He turned to face the last enemy on this side, he was confronted by two identical enemies. The Target Dummy Plasmid? She knew one was fake, but which one?

Booker jumped back as rounds from the machine gun tore up the dirt in front of him and he was hit by another pistol shot. He brought out the autopistol again and fired three times into the splicer on the right. He fell to the floor and the image of him faded away. Somehow he figured out which one was fake. Not the time to ask how.

Two more hits, Booker's Shield must be near breaking again. He brought up the Air Grabber and in a moment was in the air and hooked onto one of the overhead rails. The move surprised Larson's men and their shots missed, but it wouldn't last. He rode the rail until he was close enough to do a Skyline Strike. He landed on the splicer with the Tommy Gun.

To her surprise the splicer survived the attack and only staggered back. Before he could raise the machine gun to fire, Booker hit him again and he caught on fire. A short burst broke her father's Shield and Booker hit his with the Air Grabber which threw him away to hit a tree with a loud crunching sound.

A pistol round whipped past Booker's face. The last attacked stood a short distance away and fired his pistol. Or tried to. There was only a dull click when he pulled the trigger. Booker took a step, but stopped when he got a better look at the man.

It wasn't a man at all, but a boy. She thought he was about fourteen years old.

Realizing his problem, the boy quickly started to reload the pistol. What was her father going to do?

He leveled the shotgun at the boy. "Drop the pistol. You're not going to stop me with that."

The boy didn't stop. "Dammit!" Booker started running at him. The boy finished reloading and raised the gun. He fired an instant before a bolt of electricity from the Air Grabber struck him. Her father grunted in pain, but didn't stop.

When Booker was close to the boy he lashed out with the Air Grabber hitting the boy's arm, hard. The pistol went flying away, but she was sure the boy's right arm was broken. The shock wore off and the boy fell backward onto the floor holding his arm as a low moan of pain escaped his lips.

"Fool!" Booker yelled. She wasn't sure he was mad at the boy or at himself. Probably both.

The boy looked up at Booker. He was scared, but was keeping some control of himself. Then his eyes went wide with utter terror.

"The Mark. You have the Mark!" the boy screamed in utterly terrified voice. Then he scrambled away from Booker, uncaring of the damage he was doing to his broken arm.

That wasn't the reaction either of them expected and Booker stood for a moment in surprise before he started running after the boy. The boy ran for the doors midway down on the right side of the hall at great speed. Must be spliced to be that fast.

The boy ran through the door and by the time they got to the doors there they were locked tight.

Booker stepped back and looked at the doors. "Know anything 'bout that?" referring to how the boy yelled about "the mark"

*No idea. This isn't Columbia were everyone is looking for a man with a brand on the back of his hand. It must be something Larson and his group came up with.*

"Don't like how I'm suddenly being accused of having this so called "mark". Don't even know what it is."

*Larson's people are looking for some imaginary enemy. I guess you fit the bill.* Still, it bothered her a little that the boy started screaming about "the mark" only after he got a close look at her father.

After Booker used another First Aid Kit, they started towards the Fruit Lounge.

*The splicer using the Target Dummy Plasmid. How did you know which one was real? I couldn't tell the difference between the two.*

"Neither could I."

*Then how did you know?*

"Figured that you wouldn't put that kind thing of behind you, so shot at the one further away." It was simple when you thought about it. You put a distraction close to the enemy, not far away.

*Don't think many splicers will be able to figure that out.*

Inside the Fruit Lounge they found that the restaurant was still in fairly decent shape. There were signs of a fight, but things had been cleaned up some after it. There was an Audio Diary on a chair. They listened to it as they did a quick search.

_May Bell Johnson: Prisoners_

_February 23, 1959 _

_These people, they came in and started waving guns around. I thought they were some of Atlas's Rebels, but they're some kind of religious fanatics. Some of the spliced up ones tried to fight, but they didn't last long. Those that were left got herded in here. After a couple of hours later their leader, called himself Brother Larson comes in, said that if we stayed calm, we would be exiled. I hope so, I want to get out of here._

She starting to get a bad feeling about this talk of exile. They found bottle after bottle of alcohol made from different fruits. Seemed if it could be fermented, these people did it. There were a few dollars in the register, but nothing much of use.

"Where next? Doors on the other side?"

*Might as well.*

The room marked "Employees Only" seemed to be a store room of some kind. There all kinds of gardening tool, fertilized, crates and things associated with agriculture. A search the room turned up a few dollars, some kerosene, three packs of cigarettes, some glue and an Audio Diary from Larson.

_Jacob Larson: Seeing the Light_

_November 18th, 1958_

_God's Light shines everywhere, even in dark depths of Rapture. The Lord gave the ones who had run away from His Light one last chance for redemption. He showed us visions of a New Eden... and how it fell. How Satan sent the False One to seduce the King's Daughter and bring war to the City. How the False One blinded the Great King's Blessed Augury and then foully murdered him!_

_Those that did not heed this final call, this final warning, shall be damned to the depth of Hell for Eternity! _

Her father made a dismissive sound. Anything that involved the term "New Eden" would certainly get no favor from him. Or her for that matter. They left the room and he quickly searched the dead splicers and researched them. Found a lot of fresh fruit, a little money and three casings for shotgun shells. When they finished Larson came back on the loudspeakers.

_Those you have slain shall surely go to their just reward in Heaven. YOU, demon shall be sent back to hell! _

"The dead are your fault Larson, not mine. Don't give a damn about you or your cult, but I'm going to defend myself. Let me out and no one else has to get hurt."

_No demon. We shall finish you. It is the task God has set before us! Brothers and Sisters, We shall not fail! _

*I don't think being reasonable with Larson is going to work.*

Her father sighed slightly. "Probably right."

_You speak to your Master, Satan, but he cannot help you. You shall..._ Then there was the sound of a scuffle and the boy's voice came over the speakers. _The Mark! Bother Jacob, he has the Mark! _Then the speakers cut off.

"Guess we get to find out a bit more about this mark thing." her father said in an unhappy voice.

They started making their way to the far end of the Hall and the open archway under the balcony. Halfway there the speakers came back on.

_Brothers Sisters, our greatest trial is at hand! Satan has sent the False One itself to mislead and destroy us! Beware Brothers and Sisters! Listen not to the demons words and we shall prevail! _

"This keeps getting better and better."

*I wonder what they would call the False One's Daughter?*

"Probably don't want to know."

_You are undone False One! The Mark God placed on you to warn the faithful has given you away! The destroyer of the New Eden is before us and we shall make him pay! _

Her father took a short detour to the door the boy had fled through. "Still don't know what this Mark thing is supposed to be."

*I wouldn't worry about it.*

When they got to the door, they found it was still locked. They continued on to the archway under the balcony. They expected another attack from Larson's people, but nothing happened.

Beyond the archway was a waiting room of some sort with chairs, tables, a pair of restrooms and a set of door at the far end. On each side of the room were flights of stairs, the right side went down, the left side went up. They first checked the restrooms but found nothing of use, that only left the stairs and the doors.

"Up, down or the doors?"

*Up, some of the controls for this place may be above us.*

They went up the stairs, pausing to search a small office half way up that yielded a First Aid Kit and some tea.

At the top, they found a large room with desks, filing cabinets and a set of doors at the other end that certainly opened out onto the balcony. Along one wall was some kind of control system. It didn't take long to figure out the controls were for the watering system and nothing else. They went out on the balcony for a moment. The sniper's rifle was still there along with some ammo which Booker picked up. Mary could probably use it.

A search of the control room yielded two large sardines cans filled with explosives. Her father said they were too unwieldy to throw, but they looked just about the right size to fit into a grenade launcher. They also found some coffee, two batteries and a gold watch.

They went down the stairs to the waiting and then on to the flight of stairs heading down. The first thing they found was a restaurant called the "Ripened Fruit". It turned out to be a vegetarian restaurant, not that it really mattered. Larson's people hadn't cleaned up this place yet and there were three dead bodies here. Two had been splicers and the other one had a shotgun near his dead body. The had tried to fight and lost. The cash register held over 150 dollars, but other than that there was nothing of use.

Continuing down the stairway they passed a sealed door with a metal gate over it. They found another pump room, more agriculture supplies and a room that Larson's people seemed to have stored weapon and ammunition in. Her father replaced the standard ammo he had used and even found ten round of anti-personnel ammo for the machine gun.

At the bottom of the stairway there was a room with lockers, equipment for working underwater and four diving suits. They found several cans of food and some kind of mechanical dart that looked familiar, but she couldn't place it. The last thing they found was a bottle of Hop-Up Soda.

The next room had a large airlock door with a glove lying in front of it. Over to the right of the airlock was an observation window with a bench in front of it. They got a little closer to the airlock and realized it wasn't a glove on the floor, but a severed human hand.

*It looks like the airlock door cut it off at the wrist.*

Booker bent down and looked carefully at the small amount of blood by the severed hand.

"Dry, but not that old. Maybe a day or so." He sounded grim.

*That would mean that this happened after Larson took over.*

"Yeah."

'What did Larson's people do down here?'

Moving towards the bench they saw an Audio Diary sitting next to a Bible.

_Jacob Larson: Exile_

_February 23, 1959 _

_Exiling the unbelievers and the damned was difficult to order to give. Even more difficult for my Brothers and Sisters to carry out. But they could not be allowed to poison our Sanctuary. At times the Lord's work is difficult to do, may the Lord have mercy on those poor souls. _

_Perhaps we saved them from more suffering. Prevented a heavier weight of sin on their souls. Yes, we helped these people the only we could, as the Lord willed it. _

*Larson is utterly delusional. But …*

Her father looked back at the severed hand and then they both realized what Larson's "exile" meant. Booker looked out the window into the sea outside. They could see they could still see several of Larson's victims caught the rocks and seaweed outside.

They walked away from the window and back up the stairs. Neither of them spoke. She wanted to be angry, outraged. But all she felt was sadness. Killing Larson and his people wouldn't bring anyone back to life.

The only thing they hadn't tried yet were the doors at the end of the room waiting. Through the doors was a smaller round room with a Gatherer's Garden on the left and a Power to the People machine on the right. Other parts of the rooms were covered in empty shelves. Signs around the room indicated that they sold flowers here. On the opposite side of the room was another set of doors.

"Been hoping to find another one of those." Booker said as he walked over to the Power to the People machine. "Any preference?"

*I think I'll let you make the decision.* He quickly chose to upgrade the machine gun so that it did more damage.

Behind the next set of doors was a large room with a circular sales counter in the center and several cash registers. On either side of the room a short flight of stairs that led to oversized alcoves. The far wall on the alcove on the right had a door labeled "Employees Only". This room had all kinds of flowers and plants on its shelves.

Something seemed familiar about the room but she couldn't place it.

Behind the counter were two dead bodies wearing some kind of uniform. They probably had been employees. The registers had been cleaned out already, but there was some tea and some glue under the counter. She figured out why this place seemed familiar. She hadn't been here before, but she had been in a place similar to it. No reason to try and remember where now. They had more important things to do.

The room marked "Employees Only" was next. Inside were wrapping paper, pots, ribbons and the like. Specialty gift wrapping for plants she figured. Against one wall there was a dead body, around him were shards of broken glass and a dried red fluid. Near him was an empty Hypo.

"Plasmid." Booker said. He picked up the top of the shattered container and discovered it had been Electro Bolt. The only thing use they found after a search of the room was some kerosene and Pep Bar.

*Looks like he was trying to splice up, but Larson's people found him before he could finish.*

Her father waved his had in front of his face as if something smelled bad. Well, these dead bodies probably did smell, but this seemed different. He turned and left the room.

"Sorry. Something in there bothered me. Any ideas on what to do next?"

*We've searched everyplace.*

"Everyplace, but those locked doors in the main hall."

*I'm certain Larson will be kind enough to open one of them for us if we ask nicely.*

"Kinda doubt that. Think the main hall be the best place to look for something Larson missed."

Shortly they were back in the Main Hall and to their surprise the door the boy had run through was now open.

*Does he really think we're that stupid? That HAS to be a trap of some kind.*

"Knowing it's a trap doesn't help if it's the only thing we can do." her father said sourly.

*So that means we have to find another way.*

Booker's eyes looked around the hall and then up at the rails. His eyes followed them to where they intersected the wall and several large decorative panels showing clouds and falling rain. "Don't see the machinery they use to water the plants with."

*Larson needs those to keep these plants alive. The machinery must be hidden behind those panels. You can ride the rails right up to them if they were open.*

"Maybe find another way out of here. Need to get back up to that control room."

*And we avoid Larson's little trap.*

"Better get going before he figures out not falling for it."

End Chapter 48


	49. Chapter 49

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 49

-Elizabeth-

Booker had climbed back up the stairs and back to the control room where they spent several minutes figuring out how control the machines that watered the plants. Luckily most everything was labeled.

"Ok, hit those two buttons and pull this lever." Her father said.

*That should work. I don't understand why you don't just turn on the system so it opens the doors and waters the plants.*

"Rain makes mud and things can get slippery."

*Sorry, I never walked in mud.* Even Old Elizabeth almost never left Comstock House and certainly hadn't been allowed near anything as "impure" of mud.

"You've made up for it. Probably still some mud someplace in the house from last year." He sounded a both amused and sad.

*What was Anna, what was I doing with this mud?*

"Working on become an expert in making mud pies."

Mud pies? There was a story there, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it. No time for it anyway as her father pressed the buttons and pulled the lever.

They walked out onto the balcony as at the other end of the Hall the panels opened.

*Going to ride the rail over?*

"Hope to. Long as Larson's people stay out of things."

Just as the panels fully opened with a loud sound of metal on metal Larson's voice came over the loudspeakers.

_Brothers! Sisters! The False One had led the Hollow Kings troops to us! We must slay the False One before he brings more of the damned to destroy us! Slay the Demon! Kill the False Shepard! _

"False Shepard?* they both said.

*How could...?*

"Later." Booker said angrily as he put down the Tommy Gun and picked up the hunting rifle. He made sure it was fully loaded and then crouched down with the sights focused on the door Larson had opened to trap her father.

Just a few moments later people started running out, calling for the death of the False Shepard. The first one had a pistol, but the second had a carbine. The rifle cracked and he fell. Booker chambered another round as pistol rounds flew past him. Two more people came out the door and started shooting at him. He picked out a man with a machine gun and fired, hitting him in the head. The barrel of the weapon started to glow brighter from the effects of the Evil Eye Gear.

Right after he fired, a woman came through the door and vanished in a cloud of red and black smoke. Moments later the Houdini reformed at the far end of the balcony.

Her father quickly turned as he switching to the shotgun and brought it up to his shoulder to use the sights. Just as the splicer finished teleporting, he fired. The Electric Buck did its job, shocking the splicer and a second blast finished her off.

While switching back the rifle Booker took several hits on Shield and a fireball flew past. Turning back they could see there were eight maybe, nine people down there now, it was hard to tell. There was a a small group of them were near the doorway. Booker quickly threw a Devil's Kiss firebomb at them. They started to scatter when they saw it coming, but it was too late. Three of them died and one other were wounded.

The survivor fell a moment later to Booker's rifle, the barrel glowing even brighter now.

The rest of Larson's people scattered for cover and continued firing. Booker's Shield took two more hits and then everything turned to static as Booker was hit by Electro Bolt. When her vision cleared they were back in the control room and Booker had the Tommy Gun out.

*What's happening?*

"Last one out was a Fireman. Even had some kinda armor on. Shield broke." Then they hear feet pounding up the stairs. She thought there were three of them.

Booker brought up Bucking Bronco as he took cover behind the desk closest to the stairway. As the first person burst into the control room, she was hit by the Plasmid. It caught the man following her as well. Booker didn't fire, but jumped over the desk and ran towards the attackers. His Shield recovering just as he lashed out with the Air Grabber.

The Shock Wave Gear activated and slammed the woman into the man behind her and they both flew down the stairs. The third person had not been affected by the Plasmid and ducked to avoid his fellows as they flew past. He started firing his machine gun the moment he stood back up.

Her father returned fire and for a moment both stood there firing at each other. Booker's upgraded weapon proved too much and the man fell. Below them, the man who had been knocked down the stairs was picking himself up, the woman not moving, her head resting at an unnatural angle.

Booker leveled the Tommy Gun but didn't have a chance to fire before wind formed around the splicer's hand and her father was blown back into the control room to land on the desk he had used for cover just moments before. He quickly got to his feet and returned to the top of the stairs.

The splicer was running up the stairs and Booker let off a short burst then ducked aside as another Sonic Boom shock wave tore up the stairs. "Enough of this." he muttered and threw one of the proximity grenades down the stairway.

Moments later there was a loud explosion. Her father looked around the corner to make sure the splicer was dead before headed back in the direction of the balcony, reloading as he went. As soon as he got to the balcony Larson's people started firing at him. They were behind cover now and hard to hit.

Then there was the Fireman. He was standing half behind a tree, but she could still make out some details. He did have some kind of armor on and even a metal mask. There was more than a slight resemblance to the Fireman of Columba. When he saw Booker, he drew his arm back to throw a firebomb.

"Hold on." he told her and jumped off the balcony. A moment later he caught the rail with the Air Grabber. The shooting all but stopped for a moment. Surprise is a wonderful thing at times.

As they rode the rail, someone below screamed "Shoot him!" but before anyone could, Booker jumped off the rail to perform a Strike on the Fireman. The armored splicer staggered back a step, but did not fall.

"You shall BURN!" he yelled.

He even sounded a little like a Columbian Firemen. Then came the sound of the splicer building up a charge to release an explosion of fire.

Booker back peddled to get out of range, firing the Tommy Gun as he did. The rest of Larson's people started shooting and he took a couple hits. He took to the overhead rail again as the Fireman exploded, spewed fire in all directions. Her father dismounted to perform a Strike on a splicer with a machine gun. The impact knocking the man's body twenty feet through a row of corn.

He turned back to the Fireman and brought up the Charge Vigor. He didn't have much chance to build up its power as he took several more hits and his Shield broke again. He slammed into the Fireman just as prepared to throw another firebomb. The Shock Wave Gear activated throwing the Fireman away and into a tree trunk.

"You shall parish in FLAMES False Shepard!" Then came the characteristic whine of a Fireman building up to overload started.

Booker was hit by Electrobolt again and all she could see and hear was static. She bit back a curse as she waited for it clear. When she could see again, they were walking on the charred ground around the dead Fireman.

*Are they all dead?*

"No, managed not to kill the last one. Old man who could barely shoot." There was a sad and bitter tone in his voice and she understood why. Larson's fanatics certainly brought back memories of Comstock.

He quickly searched the body of the Fireman finding a few dollars, some Hop Up Cola and an EVE Hypo. He made a slightly disappointed sound at seeing the Hypo.

*Hoping for a bottle of EVE?*

"Yeah. Let's find out about this False Shepard."

*Aren't you forgetting Rapture Security?*

Almost as if on cue, there was yelling at the entrance of the hall.

"Uh, guess I did." he said in an embarrassed tone as he took cover behind a tree.

-Booker-

Stupid. Got distracted by Larson and his calling him the False Shepard. He needed to get back up to the balcony and the rifle. Ryan's people would be more dangerous than Larson's fanatics.

*What are you planning.*

*Get back to the balcony, hopefully pick some of them off.*

*You could just try to talk to them.*

*Try to grift them?*

*You did just clear out most of Larson's people.*

*Hm. Could claim to be a "security specialist" working for Ryan. Maybe worth a try.*

*You might even be able to get them to help us.*

*Best to make sure they are willing to talk first.*

He switched to the Cat's Feet Gear and kept low to work his way closer to the entrance. Ryan's people had come into the Hall through the storage room. Must have made their own way in. Lucky Ryan's men hadn't spotted them when they came into the Hall.

At the moment they seemed to be intent on securing the entrance and nothing more. He'd been able to catch glimpses of Ryan's people and there were only five of them. There had to be more around, likely going to secure the entrance he and Elizabeth had come in through. Someone was smart enough not to spread his people too thin.

He was glad other people couldn't see Elizabeth. Her white blouse would have been difficult to hide. She didn't have to crawl either. Not here. She's not here.

He shook his head to clear it. He was close enough to make out what they were saying now.

"Hey, Mike. Think Bethany is available tonight?"

"How the hell should I know? I just want to get out of here."

The first one replied. "What's a matter? Think Atlas's bandits are going to come out of the woodwork?"

"You're a shithead Sal. These ain't none of Atlas's. Some kinda religious fanatics, that's why Mr. Ryan said no survivors."

Sal got angry. "Mike, you…!"

A man with a very deep voice broke in. "Shut up, Sal. We're all sick of your mouth."

"Fuck you Baxter! I'm gonnaaAAHHHH!" Sal voice dissolved into a scream of pain. It sounded like Incinerate! had been used on him. Two shot gun blasts followed and Sal's screams ended.

*He just killed one of his own people!* Elizabeth said in surprise.

*Don't think they're going they are going to be willing to talk.*

*I have no idea why you would think that.*

While Ryan's people were distracted, he chanced a quick look around the edge of the tree they were behind. All of Ryan's people were looking at a burning body while one reloaded a shotgun. That must be Baxter.

When he was done reloading, Baxter turned to the others. "Anyone have a problem." Most shook their heads, one giggled slightly and the one with grenade box asked "What do we say if someone asks?"

They were close together, he could get them all with one Devil's Kiss. He started charging up for a Trap.

"Just say one of fanatics killed him." Baxter told them in an unconcerned voice.

Full charge. He took a half step out from behind the tree and threw the firebomb, putting it right in the center of the group. The splicers had just started to react to seeing him when the Trap detonated. Of the four, only Baxter survived the first explosion. He didn't survive the secondary explosion created by the Trap Mod.

*All that noise is bound to attack attention.*

"Best get back to the balcony. Next ones aren't going to be so easy. They headed back to the door under the balcony stopping only a few moments to research a few of Larson's dead splicers. When he did the Fireman though, some kind of message showed up on the display, but they didn't have time to read it.

They hurried as fast as they could, but not so fast it exhausted him. No matter how good a shape you are, trying to run up three flights of stairs took it out of you. A least he didn't have to worry about Elizabeth getting tired. Keeping low, he made his way to the balcony and looked out. Didn't see any of Ryan's men yet. He put aside the Tommy Gun and picked up the rifle again to wait.

*I didn't think it would take so long.* Elizabeth said after several minutes had passed.

"Maybe they didn't hear it. Or didn't think it was anything to worry about."

*I wonder what Larson is up to.*

"Think he might be planning something?"

*Doesn't seem the type to give up easy.*

"Probably not." Ah, movement. Only one of them, probably a runner. The runner saw the five dead bodies and turned to run back. The bullet from his rifle took him in the head.

*Why did you do that?* She sounded displeased, but wasn't willing to jump to conclusions either.

"Keeping Ryan's people guessing much as I can."

*Hm. So they only suspect they are being attacked, rather than knowing.* She sounded a little a dubious.

"At least for the moment. And it cut down the odds a little."

*Would have been so much easier if Larson had just let us leave.*

"People would still be dead."

*But you wouldn't be involved.*

"Not much we can do about it now."

About five minutes later, there was movement at the entrance. One, two, three people in uniforms of Rapture Security ran into the Hall and got behind cover. Going to wait, see if he could get the officer who was in command.

Another one from Rapture Security ran in, then three more followed. They didn't have a Rapture Security uniforms though. Two of Ryan's thugs had machines guns, heavy metal helmets and body armor. The last one was likely a Houdini splicer. He was hanging back and in the center.

*Ryan Security.* Elizabeth said in a disgusted tone.

"Guess Ryan wanted to make sure everyone here was dead." he said softly. Which was the commander of this group? None of them had any rank markings. Unlike Rapture Security, Ryan's thugs didn't try to take cover. Overconfident.

The splicer made some gestures with hands, pointing at things, giving orders. That was the one. He put the cross hairs on Houdini's head, adjusted a little for distance and pulled the trigger. As the dead splicer fell to the ground, the other two members of Ryan Security headed for cover.

'Hope this works.' he thought as he cast Possession at the Ryan Security man on the right. The Green Fairy flew down the length of the Hall and hit the armored security man just before he got to cover. The Possessed man immediately opened fire on one of the constables.

All of Ryan's people started firing on the Possessed man now, making for a good distraction. He put the cross hairs on one of the constables and fired, dropping him and increasing the glow on the barrel more. The Possessed man killed another of the constables, but was being battered by enemy fire as well has hit by an Incinerate! Plasmid. Wasn't going to last much longer.

He chambered another round and killed another constable, the one with Incinerate!. A moment later the Possessed man fell and Ryan's people turned towards him and started firing. Several rounds struck near him, but only one hit his Shield. Another shot and another constable went down. The last one got behind a tree and stopped firing. The remaining Ryan Security man in his heavy armor also took cover behind a tree, but still fired short burst at him.

He fired twice at the armored man, but only got a single hit that damaged the armor. He didn't think it was tough as the Columbian Beast Armor, but it was still seemed plenty strong. Then the time ran out on the damage boost from the Evil Eye Gear.

"Going to have to go down and get them." He jumped off the balcony and caught the rail and rode it a short distance before jumping off. If he tried to get close enough for a Strike, he would be shot to pieces.

He worked his way towards them trading shots as he moved from cover to cover. He took a couple hits and he gave a couple hits in return. He took a moment behind a tree to change the Tommy Gun's ammo to Armor Piercing rounds as his Shield built back up to full strength.

*Finally found something to use those on.* Elizabeth noted.

"Better one of Ryan's than a Big Daddy."

Then he heard someone yelling "Go, GO!" The voice sounded muffled, must be the one in the armor.

To his surprise the armored man came out from behind a tree and started firing. The last constable took off running for the storeroom. Trying to get someone out to call for help. Not a good range for the machine gun. He drew the revolver and fired twice hitting the running splicer both times. In return he lost his Shield to the machine gun of the armored security man.

He got back under cover and bullets tore up the tree truck protecting him. He could hear the constable screaming as he burned, but he needed to make sure he wasn't going to get away. 'This is going to hurt.' He leaned out from behind cover and put another round into the burning splicer, who finally fell.

He paid the price and took to two rounds from the armored man's Tommy Gun. Wasn't for the Infusions he'd be dead. He badly needed a First Aid Kit. Normal machine gun couldn't have done that. Must be upgraded.

"You're gonna die you religious scum! God is dead and so are you!" He could hear the man walking in his direction, all that armor made a lot of noise. Shield had recovered yet, needed to distract him.

"So your new god is Andrew Ryan, right?"

"Rapture has no God's or Kings!"

*I can't believe people still don't see Ryan for what he is.*

"Don't want to see it." Shield was rebuilding, just a little more. Done!

He came out from behind the tree and lightning flashed from the Grabber to hit the armored man. Booker fired two good busts and the man went down. He stood a moment with the machine gun pointing it at the fallen security man. That had been LOT easier than he had expected. Why couldn't he have had some of these rounds in Columbia?

"Larson's next."

*I would rather just leave.*

"Don't you want to know about the False Shepard?"

*Yes, I do. But it's not worth more killing. We can find another way in Arcadia.*

He sighed. She was right. Satisfying curiosity wasn't worth the blood. "Ryan can take of Larson and whoever is left."

He quickly researched the splicers and searched the dead. A battery, crackers, coffee, three bottles of Hop Up Cola and two Pep Bars. The two armored men from Ryan Security had Anti-Personnel rounds on them.

When he was done he started heading for the store room where Ryan's people had come out of. There was a large hole in the far wall. Going through the hole they entered a hallway with a set of closed doors at the end. They passed a room with large pumps, but didn't bother to check it out.

When they got to the doors, they found them locked tight.

*You have GOT to be kidding!* Elizabeth blurted out in frustration.

"Guess we get to talk to Larson anyway."

When they got back to the Hall Larson's voice crackled over the loudspeakers.

_You've failed False One. You shall not destroy Sanctuary. You shall not have them now!_

"I didn't want this fight Larson. All you had to do was let me leave!"

_You are beaten demon! False Shepard! God has beaten you! _

*He's not even listening. He must have totally broken with reality.*

_You shall not consume their souls and nor shall you get mine demon!_

A moment later a shot rang out over the speakers.

*He...* "shot himself."

*But there must be other members of his cult. What happened to them?*

"Don't know." but he had a bad feeling. He knew what it was to kill yourself and it was not an easy thing to do. Probably a lot easier for someone like Larson though. But what about the others? They couldn't all be insane from splicing, could they? Elizabeth was looking down, she probably had the same bad feeling he did.

The door that Larson had opened as a trap hadn't been closed. Didn't think it was a trap now, but took it slow just to be sure. He wasn't attacked and didn't even see anyone. This area looked to be a small shopping district. Lots of small shops mixed with equipment meant for tending plants. They spent the next twenty minutes looking around the area. Found a First Aid Kit, some supplies and got his EVE level back up to about two thirds. There were traces of dried blood and some evidence of fighting, but no bodies.

Finally they found a Circus of Values and El Ammo Bandito. He replaced some ammo and was able to get three more of the Proximity Grenades, even had some Electric Buck.

At the far end of the area they found a flight of stairs leading to the floors above and below them. Decided to go up first.

This floor was mostly offices and some research areas, but they didn't find much that was of use. They got close to one door and Booker stopped. The smell. Gunpowder and fresh blood. A lot of it.

"Elizabeth, you don't need to see this."

*It's a little late to try and protect me from seeing slaughter, Mr. DeWitt.* He winced slightly at the tone in her voice.

"Yeah, guess it is." Couldn't help trying sometimes though.

The door opened to reveal his worst expectations. Despite herself Elizabeth made a small gasp. Fourteen, no fifteen dead. Five of them where children, including the boy who's arm he'd broken. Another child couldn't have been more than two. Several of the adults had clearly used a gun on themselves, but others had tried to run away and been shot in the back.

He didn't touch anything in the room.

The last room on the level was a large than most and had all sorts of controls and half a dozen TV monitors. One of the chairs in the room was occupied by a slumped over figure who's back was to the door. On the floor nearby was a pistol.

They walked up and he turned the chair around to find the man in the chair had put a bullet into his own head. He looked different than the Wanted Poster they had seen earlier. Looked older, had lost some hair and what he still had was now mostly white. Had started to grow a beard. They both knew who it was though.

"Larson.*

He looked at the TV screens around the room. They showed several different locations around the Hall and one showed a small group of people clearly imprisoned in some kind of makeshift cell. Neither of them had any idea why a building dedicated to growing plants would need all these cameras and a advanced security system, but they did. They turned their attention to the console and spent a little time figuring out how to work it. In a few minutes all the doors were open and they could leave.

"Seems we don't have a reason to find another way into Arcadia now."

*I guess we don't. And it would probably be a worth a few minutes to go let Larson's prisoners out.*

"Guess that might be a way to get on their good side."

*And it's the right thing to do.*

"Is that." Letting those people out would also be a good way to keep Security from looking to hard at what happened here and what he might have done. And Elizabeth was correct, it was the right thing to do.

It took them nearly ten minutes to figure out where the prisoners were being held and get to there. They were held two floors down from the control room where they found Larson. Elizabeth made some choice comments about the some aspects of building's layout as they made their way down. Seems to have become her new hobby.

When they got there, the door was chained shut from the outside, no lock though. He opened the door to find five scared looking people looking back at him.

"It's ok, it's over, Larson's dead. So is the rest of his cult."

A woman stepped forward. A little older than the rest, dressed better. "Who are you? What do you want?" she all but demanded. The voice was familiar, they'd found an Audio Diary from her, Samantha Gomez.

"Names Robert Boston. Thought I would come and let you out."

She looked suspiciously at him and he couldn't really blame her. "Do you work for Mr. Ryan?"

Best not to try a grift right now. "I'm an independent contractor. Have some business here and came here to take care of it."

"Are you saying that you walked in here and wiped out that lunatic Larson?"

"No. Rapture Security and Larson's cult did each other. Larson finished himself."

"What do you mean by that?" The other people in the room where moving towards the door.

"Shot himself."

"You saw this?"

"Heard it, saw the body." Gomez followed the other four people out the door.

"You sure it was really him?"

"Wanted poster I saw was old, but it was him."

"Thank Goodness. Atlas's rebels are bad enough, we don't need fanatics like Larson around. Everyone else is ok, right?"

"Everyone else?"

"The people that Larson said he exiled." She looked at him with a worried expression. Elizabeth had a sad troubled look. *She doesn't know.*

How to say this? He took a breath. "Sorry to have to tell you this. Larson's "exile" involved the airlock below."

Gomez stopped dead in her tracks and her face turned pale. "All dead?" she said softly.

"Far as I know. Sorry to have to tell you all of a sudden."

She closed her eyes and stood still a moment. "No other way to say it. Guess deep down part of me knew something like that had happened."

They walked up to the main Hall in silence. They were almost to door that he and Elizabeth had come in when he asked "What are you going to do now?"

"Try and keep this place going. We produce almost 20 percent of Rapture's food here."

"Might buy some. Could you do me a couple favors?"

*You're planning on buying beats, aren't you.* Elizabeth accused him with a look of mock anger on her face.

"I suppose I could Mr. Boston."

"Could you not mention me to Rapture Security? Rather not have to answer a lot of questions."

"That shouldn't be too hard. Anything else?"

"Yeah, need to find the North Mainline Vent"

She looked at him a moment then shrugged slightly. "The main vents are on the lowest floor, the one below where you found us. Larson started his cult down there. Don't know exactly where the vents are. I don't go down there much.

"Thanks, still been a help."

The survivors left continued on to the upper floors while he and Elizabeth turned to head back down to the bottom floor of the building. It was all machinery, pumps pipes and the like.

*I can see why Gomez didn't come down here that often. This place is filthy.*

"Can use that to our advantage."

*Looking for footprints? Who would you be tracking?*

"Bruno."

*You think he made it down here?*

"Could have. Seemed like he knew his way around."

They looked closely and found a lot of tracks heading in a single direction.

"Didn't think there would be that many people down here."

*Larson's Cult. The Audio Diary said that Larson started off "down below". This is about as down below as we can get.*

"You think that chamber thing is down here."

*The Chamber of the Oriel. It seems logical that it would be.*

"Might as well take a look. One way is as good as the next."

Only took a few minutes of walking they came to a doorway covered with flowers and small gifts.

"Looks like a shrine." He really didn't understand this and liked it less.

Above the door was a small sign that said "Main Vent: North".

"Well, that certainly is convenient." Maybe a little too convenient.

The expression on Elizabeth's face was mixed. Anger, sadness and a touch of worry. *I think I know what happened.*

"You going to let me in on it?"

*That would spoil the surprise.* She didn't look all that happy about what this surprise was though.

They walked through the door and into the room. It was about 25 feet across and had eight air ducts coming off a single large one. All over the room were things that looked like offerings, photographs and hand drawn pictures. He took one of the pictures off the wall to look at it and almost dropped it.

It depicted a building with three huge towers and there large white faces below them. Under the faces there was only sky. It was a place he hoped never to see or hear of again.

Comstock House.

The other drawings and photographs were of Columbia as well. One of them was of the poster that had a dark claw like hand with a bright "AD" on it. Looked like the same poster he had seen just before he went to the Raffle.

"A tear." Should have seen it sooner.

*This must have been one of the more stable tears back to Columbia.*

"And Larson built up a cult around it thinking it was a message from God."

*He probably isn't the only one. I imagine more than a few delusional splicers think the tears are signs from God as well.*

He wanted to go break something. He and Anna should be totally free of Columbia, of Lighthouses, Men and Cities. He took a breath and calmed down some. Wasn't easy, but he was getting better at.

"That's why that Fireman had Columbia style armor."

*And they called you the False Shepard.*

"Don't have a brand on my hand." he told her emphatically and lifted up his right hand.

*Wait! Look.* she was looking at him with a puzzled and surprised expression.

He looked at the back of his hand. No brand with the letters AD of course. But the enlarged veins on his hand looked like an "A" and next to it something that looked like a "D". Twisted and distorted, but still letters.

"How?" No! He hadn't sold his daughter, It. Didn't. Happen! His hand clenched in anger. He Didn't Do It! NOT AGAIN!

*Booker! Calm down, just calm down. Those aren't really letters. Nothing wrong.*

"What?"

*People often see patterns even when there aren't any. We see AD because we are used to seeing the letters, Larson's people were looking for someone with the letters AD on their hand, but they really aren't there."

What she was saying was starting to make his head hurt. "Just think the letters are there?"

*Yes. You didn't sell Anna. You didn't brand your hand. It's just bad luck that your varicose veins look a little like letters.*

"Enough, just... I want to be shut of this place. Got a way into Arcadia now, think we should use it."

*True enough. Let's go before something else happens.*

End Chapter 49


	50. Chapter 50

BioShock Infinite: Union

Chapter 50

-Booker-

Once they had started looking, wasn't that hard to find the North Mainline Vent. He was happy to get away from all those reminders of Columbia. Could imagine how much worse had been for Elizabeth when she had gone back there.

The "vent" was actually a huge pipe big enough for him to stand upright inside. They quickly found an access hatch that allowed them inside. New scruff marks on the paint and metal of the hatch said that it had been used recently.

*You think Bruno was able to get down here without Larson's people seeing him?*

"Maybe. Can't think of why anyone else would be down here."

Opened the hatch and a stiff breeze hit him in the face. Actually felt a little refreshing. Hadn't felt anything like the wind since he'd come to Rapture.

Once inside and the hatch was closed, they started walking in the direction the breeze came from. He wondered a moment why Elizabeth wasn't affected. Not here. Not. Real. It took fifteen minutes of walking before the came to another access hatch. This hatch was a lot smaller than the last one and looked to have been used recently as well.

He cracked the hatch open and looked about. Trees, plants, even grass, but no people. The place was big, could have played baseball inside of it. It was very warm and humid. The roof was metal and glass with large metal support beams holding it up. All along the roof where pipes which must be for the watering system. Bright lights supplemented the weak sunlight that was able to make its way down from the surface. Unlike many of the other building in Rapture, there was little, if any Art Deco styling. It looked plain, functional.

*This must one of the greenhouses used to supply Rapture with oxygen.*

All the trees and plants were in straight lines, not even trying to look natural. He climbed out into greenhouse and closed the hatch behind him.

"Very orderly." Couldn't say he liked it much.

*It's designed for maximum efficiency.*

"And not for the average person to wander around. All of Rapture's oxygen comes from places like this?"

*Much of it from what I read. Fontaine had an oxygen company, but Ryan probably shut it down. These greenhouses really aren't needed as you can get oxygen from electrolysis, but they don't seem to be doing that much.*

"Cost more money?"

*I don't think so. With the volcanic tap under Hephaestus electricity is cheap and it certainly takes a lot of resources to build and maintain these greenhouses.*

"Ryan's proving a point then."

*To show he's rich enough to pay for an underwater forest?* She looked at him with one eyebrow raised and a not very serious expression.

"Why do you think Comstock House was the way it was? He wanted to show off his power."

Elizabeth nodded slightly to say she understood. *I wonder which way Bruno went. He should know this place better than we do.*

"Might be able to find out." He started looked closely at the ground around the vent hatch. The grass which was getting a bit tall, easy to see tracks. Guess hadn't had much chance to cut it with the war on.

*You're very good at tracking.*

"Had to eat." That was all he was going to say about it. "Going that way." He was going to call it north for the moment.

They walked until they came to the wall and found a heavy watertight door. Going through led them to a catwalk running over a large pumping station. Half way across the catwalk Elizabeth asked him to stop and look around.

*Any particular reason?* he asked silently as he started taking a closer look at the room below them. Had an idea why, but wanted to make sure.

*I've been here before, seen this room, I know it. But I never came down Arcadia when I was here before.*

*Or just don't remember.*

*You mean being here is something I forgot when I came back to Rapture?*

*Maybe.*

She was quiet as he finished looking around. Only thing of interest was some storage cabinets and crates near a small workbench. No stairs heading down, but there was a cargo hook off to the left. Elizabeth didn't have to go down with...

Elizabeth wasn't here.

He jumped to the hook with the Grabber and then to the floor below. Searching, they found some Kerosene, five pieces of rotten fruit and an Infusion which he used to boost his Health. They also found more two of the strange electronic darts. Still didn't know what they were, but decided it might be a good idea to hang on to them.

The tried the door that led out of the pump room, but found it locked from the other side. Back up to the catwalk and through the door at the end of it. On the other side they found another greenhouse just as big as the one they just left. Still following Bruno's tracks, they walked and came to wall with two 15 foot tall doors and a normal sized one beside them. The normal sized door was closed, but not locked.

After going through the door they found themselves in a warehouse sized room full of heavy equipment that looked like it was for farming or landscaping. There were other large doors on the other side of the room. They checked a couple offices they passed along the way, but found nothing usefull.

The next greenhouse was different, not as hot or humid, looked more like a park. Someone had even set up the speaker system to play bird sounds. Things were getting overgrown, but wasn't bad yet. He looked back at the door they had just passed through and it said "Employees Only". Picked up Bruno's tracks again and they led to a small stone pathway and continued north before they lost them.

Elizabeth had been quiet the entire time they had been walking. Thinking.

*I don't think my not remembering being here is a result of my memory loss because I came back to Rapture.* she decided.

"Why not?"

*Before when I saw something that brought back a memory, I would get a vision. It wasn't very pleasant and… well, you know how it is. But this isn't like that. It's more like most of the memory is gone, erased." She threw up her left hand in frustration. *Now all I can remember is a small fragment of it or just a memory of the memory.*

"Some kinda amnesia?"

*If it is, it seems to be oddly specific.* She made a face that was part irritated and part pout. She didn't like not being able to remember. Problems with their memories seem to be a regular thing when it came to places like Rapture and Columbia.

A little while on they heard people chanting, seemed to be four of them. Puzzled, they got closer to the source of the chanting using trees for cover. They found four people wearing red and white clothing in a clearing next to a small pond. Three men and one woman. All wore some kind of masks made up of pieces of wood, leaves and twigs.

He couldn't figure exactly what they were doing, looked like a cross between a dance and a ritual. The chants were talking about summoning the fire and mist. They were focused on whatever they were doing so he was got out the Research Camera. They were splicers, no big surprise there, camera said Houdini's.

Elizabeth was standing several feet off to his right looking at the splicers. *I wonder if these are the Saturnine.*

*The who?*

*A cult I saw mentioned in a newspaper article. They were causing trouble in Arcadia before the Civil War started. It didn't say much else about them.*

*Long as they stay away from us, not going to bother them.* They withdrew without the splicers ever being the wiser and continued on the path. A couple minutes later the path entered a thick grove of trees and then went into a small gully. At the bottom was something that looked like a dead body.

He took a few steps and stopped. 'This isn't right.'

*Booker?*

He took a step back and checked the machine gun. *Feels like a trap.*

*There isn't any blood by the body. It was placed there as bait.*

Before he could respond they heard a Houdini splicer appear behind them. He turned as fast as he could, but was still too slow. A blast of Sonic Boom knocked him down the path towards the dead body. He landed on his feet because of the Cat's Feet Gear, but it still hurt. He hated those "wind" attacks that bypassed his Shield.

"Another sacrifice for the gods! Drink up Brothers and Sisters!" he heard the splicer shout.

He brought the Tommy Gun up, but the splicer vanished before he could fire. He wasn't that far from the dead body, had to get out. Three more Houdini Splicer started appearing around him. No time for Researching.

Just as the one directly ahead finished teleporting, he opened up. The splicer went down with a one good burst. At the same time he killed the first splicer, he was hit by a shotgun blast from the splicer on his right, but he managed to avoid the fireballs thrown by the one on his left.

He turned to the right, shotgun was the biggest threat, but both splicers vanished.

*Booker! The grass!*

'What was...' Then he saw it. Footprints in the grass. Some of these Houdini Splicer's didn't teleport, just turned invisible. Can see where the feet are, but that made for a poor target, waste of ammo. He threw a Devil's Kiss bomb at were the splicer was. The explosion left behind a dead body. Now for the last one.

Didn't see any tracks. Must actually teleport. He got the Research Camera out as he could dodge the fireballs without much problem with his Fleet Feet Gear active. Out of the corner of his eye to the right he saw splicer form in the red and black cloud. Picture (Action Shot!), Dodge, Picture, Picture, Dodge, Picture. Didn't think he would get anything more useful.

The splicer vanished again before he could bring the machine gun into play. A few seconds later he heard the splicer start to reappear behind him. He jumped to the side as he turned and a fireball flew past him missing him by inches. He opened fire and hit the splicer with a short burst, before he vanished again.

That was when the splicer made his final mistake. He appeared in front of Booker about ten feet away. One last burst finished him off.

Elizabeth walked over the last splicer he had killed to take a closer look at him.*These Houdinis don't seem to be as tough as the ones I fought down in Fontaine's. Not as fast either.*

"Ryan probably did something to make his splicers stronger. But don't think that these were as tough as some of the ones I fought before either."

*Guess that Research Camera is proving it's worth. That reminds me, what was the message from earlier?*

"Mess.. from when I researched the Fireman earlier? Guess we got a moment."

It was a formula for a damage upgrade to the Devil's Kiss Plasmid. Sounded a lot like the one from Columbia. Thought he had some of the ingredient already, but not all.

*Alcohol, two Chlorophyll Solutions, four Enzyme Samples, two EVE Hypo's, an empty Hypo and Glue. I really don't understand how all of that can make a Plasmid Upgrade from all of that.*

"Probably not all that safe." he told her.

*Actually I think it may be. Or safe for ADAM at least.*

"How so?"

*Unlike the Gene Tonics, this upgrade shouldn't alter you biology any more than it already has.*

"It's only changing something that's already been changed. Huh, well don't seem to need it right now."

*We don't have all we need to make it either. Or a U-Invent to make it with.*

"If we happen to run across the rest of what's needed I'll think about it." Really didn't want to do anything that might make him worse. "Let's see if these splicers had anything useful to us."

-Elizabeth-

Her father searched the dead splicers finding some money, an EVE Hypo and some tea. Being up close to the Saturnine allowed them to see details they couldn't see earlier. What she had taken for red and white designs on the splicers clothes wasn't that at all. Someone had taken red and white paint and painted the clothes. It looked like the clothes were still being worn when they were painted.

One of the splicer's masks had fallen off and even their faces had been painted with the same white paint used on the clothes. She knew that many paints contained chemicals that were toxic just to breath. Having them applied directly to the skin would certainly be worse than the fumes.

They left the dead splicers behind and went to the body that had been left as bait. No money, but he had a an Audio Diary.

_Wilbur Macintosh: Last Shipment for Now _

_Date February 19, 1959_

_Bruno, I managed to get the shipment out, but that's going to be it for awhile. That Jap bastard Ryoich is getting on a security kick. Going to be a lot harder to get at stuff from here on in. Had to move the drop, saw someone nosing around the one at Cabin Two. New one is near Cabin Five, the pile of rocks down the hill. Can't miss it. _

"Ryoich?"

*Hm. This Macintosh must have been the one who put that stuff in the safe down in the Maintenance Bay in Fontaine's.*

"And this is probably Bruno." Booker said, glancing down at the body. "Must have been the fence."

*I wonder what's in the drop.*

"Something from Columbia." He didn't seem that happy to be reminded of it so soon after what happened with Larson.

*It shouldn't be much of a side trip. There might be a Gear or an Infusion.*

"Can look for it on the way back out. Meant what I said about tips going cold fast."

She wanted to argue, but he had a point. She didn't think an hour would make much a difference, but he did and he knew more about this sort of thing than she. On the other hand, she wanted to make sure Booker was alive and well to find her and another Gear or Infusion would help ensure that.

'We can have different answers, but both are right in their own way.'

They continued on the path to the next door through a glass tunnel into the next greenhouse. They could see buildings ahead through the glass that were not greenhouses.

"Must be Arcadia up ahead."

*Can't say I'm unhappy to be getting out of here.*

"Don't like Ryan's forest?"

*No. I would rather be in a real forest, outside.* *Have I ever been in a real forest?*

"Central Park count?"

*A park? No.* She had more than enough of such places.

"Well, not yet then."

*Not yet? You had plans?*

"Next summer. Planning on getting you out of the city for a few weeks. Maybe go camping a few days. Stars are brighter away from the city."

*Never really looked at the stars all that much.*

"Even if you did, lot different laying in the grass and looking up at 'em."

*I'll put it on my list of things to do.*

They were getting close to the next door. While they had walked the path had gotten wider and they had passed several places where it branched off. This area was clearly more heavily traveled. They were a few warning signs, mostly about not damaging the trees and other plants. They had even seen a cabin off to the left side.

Booker left the path and went into the trees. He walked differently somehow. He didn't have to worry about making noise with the Gear, trying to avoid leaving tracks? They moved parallel to the path a little way until they got close to the next door that would take them out of the greenhouse.

He had be right to be cautious, there were four people at the door. All of them were splicers and the one that looked like the leader was a Frosty. He stood back from the door while the other three tried to break it down with a hammer and couple of shovels, without any success. A readout over the door kept repeating the same message in red letters. "12 Hour Security Lockdown in Effect."

*We're locked in. That's. Just. Great.*

*Guess we get to look for Cabin five then.* he told her as he started to move away from the splicers.

*I guess we do.* she said sourly. She had wanted to go to Cabin five, but being locking in here for 12 hours was too long a time to waste.

Booker glanced over to his left. He hadn't tried to stop. *Thought you would be a little happier about it.*

*I don't like being trapped.*

"You have reason enough for that. It's only twelve hours, probably less."

*Which means you're going to be here all night.*

"Slept in a lot worse places. Besides, might be able to find a cabin."

*You're going to break into a cabin to sleep in the bed?*

"Break in yes, but not to sleep in the bed."

*You're going to have to explain that to me.*

"If you're trying to sneak up on someone sleeping in a house, how do you do it?" This must be what a student in school feels like when the teacher asks them a question.

*You would… go to the bedroom. By not sleeping in the bed, it confuses anyone trying to attack you in your sleep. So where are you going to sleep?*

"Won't know till I get there. Might just sleep on the floor behind a couch."

It all seemed slightly absurd to her. *So why did you have to figure this all out?*

He seemed a little embarrassed. "Well, got in the way of someone rich last time. Had some thugs show up at my apartment while I was asleep. Got lucky when one of them made enough noise to wake me."

*What happened?*

"Shot one in the arm, rest ran away. Started leaving trip wires around after that."

*And the person that sent the goons after you?*

"Gave him a deal, he took it. That was the end of it."

He wasn't telling her something. *What kind of deal?*

"Well, I wouldn't send some, ah, indiscrete letters I happened to come across to his father and he would leave me alone."

*So you blackmailed him?* Why didn't that surprise her very much.

"He started it. Hired me to do a couple of jobs for him after that."

*You blackmailed him and then he hired you to work for him?*

"For people like that, it's just business. Guess I managed to impress him with how I handled things."

They were back on the path now and had found a small map of the greenhouse areas open to the public. The cabin they were looking for was in the next greenhouse over to the left. Booker said to the east.

*So what was in the letters?*

"He was having an affair with someone."

*I wouldn't think such a much of a scandal considering everything else going on.*

He hesitated an moment. "Affair wasn't with a woman. His father ever found out, would have been disowned."

*A man? That wouldn't have been that big a scandal even in Columbia.*

"Comstock was actually lot more open about things like that than people on the surface. Being homosexual could get you beaten, even killed. Some places passed laws against it."

*Why do you know so much about this?*

"People like that had to stay where no one would notice them, out of sight. Places the police didn't want to go."

*Which is the same sort of place criminals would be.*

"And it's where I do, did, alot of work. Guess that might be part of the draw for places like Columbia and Rapture."

*Not having to hide what you are?*

"A freedom you don't have. A chance to start new. In Columbia it was freedom from all the sins you committed, a new soul."

*And Rapture its freedom from laws and morals. And look they how they both turned out.*

"Bloodshed, slavery and war. Just the opposite of what people were looking for."

They had found the doors that lead to the greenhouse that held Cabin five. Passing through the doors they found a medium length corridor with a Circus of Values half way down on the left. A little further down on the right was a sign for Green Valley Plaza. There were two bodies on the floor not far from the Circus of Values.

*A shopping plaza in a forest?* She knew she shouldn't be surprised by such things, but sometimes...

"Some rich folks idea of roughing it."

*Only some?*

He researched the two bodies and bought three rations from the vending machine.

"Had a well to do friend who's idea of relaxation was being out on the range herding cattle or hiking through the countryside with full pack. Want to take a look at the plaza?"

*Might as well. I think Anna's done for the day, so even if we had gotten into Arcadia, we wouldn't have been able to find her.* 'Find me, ME, not Anna.' *Your friend sounds rather unusual.*

"That's... one way to put it. You liked him a lot."

*I knew him?* It seemed a little hard to believe Booker was friends with some millionaire and that she actually liked him.

They were at the archway for the plaza now. "Yeah, tell you more sometime." He seemed to think it was funny.

Booker kept close to the wall and slipped into the plaza. It was small, containing only three businesses, the "Golden Apple Restaurant and Lounge", a Jet Postal and what might have been a clothing store that had been burned out. At the end of the plaza was a door that likely led to a maintenance area. No one seemed to be around, which was good.

Booker walked to the Jet Postal first. Said he wanted to send that ammo to Mary before something else happened. She never had reason to use a Jet Postal, but it wasn't difficult to figure out how the automated service worked and shortly the ammunition was on its way.

Next, they searched the restaurant. There were some signs of violence, but no corpses. None of the food here was fit to eat other than what was in cans. At least Booker would have a something better to eat than those rations.

Last was the maintenance area. Going through the door they found a large room with conduit, fuse boxes, switches and dials all over. A small office with a time clock was just to right of the door. Searching it they found two bottles of Hop Up Cola along with a small box of Electric Buck that held four rounds. The rest of the room had nothing of worth.

They left the plaza and started down the short corridor to the passage that went between the two greenhouses. Part of the way down, they heard voices. Booker flattened himself up against the wall and allowed the Gear hide him.

"They have to be here somewhere." a woman said.

"With the lockdown, those little fish aren't going anywhere." a man replied.

"When we do find them, the Frosty is all Yours, dear." the woman shot back.

"No problem at all honey."

The two people pass the across the end of the corridor. Both had masks made of wood and leaves and wore clothes painted red and white. More Saturnine.

*Guess they don't teleport everywhere they go.*

*It would use too much EVE.*

*Think following them may be a good idea.*

*And why would it be a good idea?*

Booker moved away from the wall and to the end of the corridor to look around the corner. The two Saturnine had gotten to the door and were opening it.

*Research. Camera seems to do better with multiple subjects and if they are in combat.* Booker decided.

*You think you can follow them without being seen?* The splicers had gone through the door and into the greenhouse, closing the door after them.

Her father made a dismissive sound as he started down the corridor. "Only hard part is getting outside." She understood. If they left too quickly, the splicers would see or hear him.

They walked to the door and waited several minutes to make sure the two Saturnine were far enough away to open it safely. After re-entering the greenhouse, it wasn't hard for Booker to pick up the trail of the splicers, it headed in the general direction of the exit door they had seem the Frosty and the other splicers trying to break open.

Several minutes later they heard gunfire. It was up ahead, a little to their right and not very far away. Booker broke into a fast walk wanting to get to the fight, but not wanting to blunder into it. They came to a small field with the four splicers standing in a circle facing out. Around them two, no, three Houdini now, appeared and vanished around them.

When one of the Saturnine appeared one of the splicers would attack, forcing the Houdini to evade before they could do much. It was more or less a stalemate.

Her father got out the Research Camera and started taking pictures. She thought he took twenty before the camera started telling him the score was too low. In that time they had reached an addition research level in Lead Head Splicers, the first level for the Frosty and most importantly, another one for Houdini Splicers. Now they could see were the splicers would reappear before they actually did.

When they finished they withdrew and to let the splicers fight. She suspected that sooner or later the Saturnine would call for reinforcements to wipe out the Frosty and his friends. Ten minutes later they were back at the plaza moving towards to the next greenhouse. Booker took a moment to buy more film for the camera before walking to the next greenhouse.

Once in the greenhouse and a short distance down the path they found signs pointing out the paths to take to get to the cabins. Cabin Five was to the east of them. A short walk brought them to the cabin. It looked more like a large house than a cabin. Her father was right about rich people "roughing it". It sat on top of a small hill in a large clearing surrounded by tree. The rock pile mentioned in the Audio Diary was around back. The door to the house was partially open and one of the windows had been broken, but other than that it looked normal.

Booker watched the cabin for a little while from the cover of the trees looking for signs of life, but didn't seem to be any. He kept to the trees and worked around to the back of the house.

Her father looked up at the lights overhead. "Ever get dark in here?"

*The article I read about didn't mention it. But if they wanted to produce the maximum amount of oxygen they would keep the greenhouses fully lit 24 hours a day.*

They were about a half of the way around the hill now and could get a better look at the rocks that contained the cache Bruno had been looking for and a large pond beyond them.

*He was right. You can't miss those rocks.* The "pile" of rocks was made up of large boulders and stood nearly ten feet tall. *Where would someone hide something in something that big?*

"Drops can go a number of ways. Could even be a piece of paper with instructions to the real drop site."

*I hope not. I'm getting more than a little tired of being sidetracked all the time.*

He glanced over to his right. "Yeah, does seem to uh, happen a lot." She was SURE he was going to say "constantly". She hoped the image of her glared at him for a moment.

They got close to rocks and saw a large foot locker about three feet tall. They opened it and found it contained fishing equipment, probably meant for use by whoever owned the cabin. No clues to the cache though. They spent some time looking around the rocks, but didn't find anything. They started looking over the nearby trees and looking for dirt that had recently been turned over.

Nothing.

They started walking back to the foot locker and she realized something about it.

*Booker, could you open up the locker again?*

He did so without asking. The inside of the locker was only two feet deep. *Can you take a couple steps back?*

That was it.

*I think it's under the foot locker. The bottom on the inside is at least a foot higher than it should be compared to the outside.*

Her father tipped the locker up and under it was a shallow hole dug into the ground containing a large blue cloth bag. The bag held a Gear, a bar of silver and a smaller bag holding more than twenty gems and pearls. Booker's eyes fixed on the largest gemstone, a large brilliant amethyst.

"Huh! Comstock heard about this. Was on display at some place in Emporia when the Vox Revolt started."

She was ambivalent about the stone. It was beautiful, but disliked the greed associated with it. *What Gear is that?*

"Urgent Care." He seemed rather pleased about it.

*Going to take a look at the cabin?*

"Might as well."

They hiked up the hill the cabin and Booker knocked on the door.

*What are you…?*

"Just might be someone in there who isn't going to attack."

*And anyone wanting to attack would have done so.*

"Doesn't hurt to be polite from time to time."

Wasn't an answer so after a couple minutes so Booker pushed open the door with his autopistol drawn. They searched the cabin and found two bodies that were weeks old, likely victims of the Saturnine. The place had been ransacked, but things hadn't been badly damaged, more just tossed about than anything. Booker said the cabin had been made up to look like a hunting lodge, which explained all the exposed wood, plain looking furniture and animal heads mounted on the walls.

They found several bottles of Hop Up Cola, a small box of tea bags and a battery. After that they started looking around for place to sleep and eventually decided to use the small attic. They had to open a trap door in the ceiling of one of the bedrooms to get to it. It was a little dusty and had a pair of small windows at both ends allowed a little light in, but it seemed unlikely anyone would find them there. Booker cooked up some of the canned food in the kitchen and they made tentative plans for the next day.

Booker had remembered to bring along the history book and they spent some time reading. Her father laughed out loud about trying to ban the sale of alcohol and was not at all surprised by the rise of organized crime that followed. The Roaring Twenties were a fascinating time, but she wasn't that sad she had missed them. Then came the Great Depression and the Dust Bowel. Socialists, Anarchists, Militarists, Communists, Fascists. A whole bunch of "ists" vying for power both in the United States and other countries.

It was about that time she started to get sleepy. As she drifted off she heard someone singing. A young girl. She didn't know the song, but thought she should. The girl's voice, familiar, did she know who it was? Can't... think... remember.. sleep... darkness.

End Chapter 50


	51. Chapter 51

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 51

-Elizabeth-

Woke up slowly, the right way. Hated getting woke up suddenly. As things started faded in she wanted to remember something, something important. Something from just before Anna went to sleep? Singing or music? Can't...Try to remember it later.

First thing she saw as the darkness faded was that Booker was awake and that he had his shotgun out and pointed at the trap door that allowed them to get up into the attic. Attic? They were still in the attic of the cabin. There were muffled voices below, at least three people. Hard to make out what they were saying, but they spoke in conversational tones. They didn't seem to know Booker was up here.

*What's happening.*

Booker closed his eyes and shook his head as if trying to clear it. *Saturnine. Four of them. Seem to be looking for something. Magazines I think.*

*Magazines?* Why would they be looking for those?

*Don't know why. Been here about ten minutes.* Booker's tone of voice become more a little more cheerful and he looked over to his right. *So sleep well?*

*I think. At least no rude wake up this time.*

They had to wait five minutes before the splicers below left. Booker thought it prudent that they wait five more to make sure they were gone. Then he climbed down to find the house looking even more messed up than before. Not wanting to chance the Saturnine returning, her father left the cabin and ate one of the cold rations he had bought yesterday as they walked.

As they walked to the exit they spotted several more Saturnine, but where able to avoid any more fights. He was even able to research one of them. Even without the Gear he was better at sneaking around here than he had in Columbia. Of course there hadn't been much opportunity for stealth in the floating city.

They approached the exit and there were clear signs of the battle that had taken place here. The grass was torn up, bullet holes and burn marks scared the nearby foliage and of course there was the Saturnine encased in ice. The important thing was that the security lockdown was over now.

"Guess the Frosty and his friends managed to get out."

*You would think that the Saturnine would get their friend out of the ice.*

"Seem a lot more interested in killin' than saving."

The door opened as they approached revealing a fairly large open space. It looked like a combination waiting area and parking area for electric carts. A huge glass wall looked out over to the next greenhouse over that was even larger than the one they had just left. In the center of the wall was a tunnel with tram rails.

"What are those?" Booker asked looking at the carts. The carts had six seats and room in back for cargo.

*Battery powered carts. I suppose they don't want to use internal combustion engines for some reason.*

"Probably because of the fumes."

*Fumes?*

"Yeah, exhaust from cars isn't nice. Remember hearing about somebody that killed himself by sitting in a building with the engine running to long."

She ran through the chemistry and operation of internal combustion engines. The fumes must be the result of incomplete burning of the fuel. An enclosed space would also allow the buildup of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide as well as other toxic gasses such as nitrogen dioxide.

While she had been thinking, Booker had started walking to the tram tunnel. As they walked they passed a Rosie working outside. It was only fifty yards to the next greenhouse, but when they got to the end of the tunnel they found it sealed by a massive set of watertight doors. They could see that the next greenhouse wasn't flooded, so that wasn't the reason for the sealed doors. Part of Arcadia's lockdown?

"Has to be some way to open this." Booker muttered as he started to look around. But they didn't see anything that looked like a control panel.

*Maybe there is something back at the other end we missed.* She didn't think there had been, but what other choice did they have?

Booker started walking back, but had only gotten about ten feet when there was a low mechanical rumble. They looked back and the massive airlock doors cracked open.

"Well, that's convenient."

Then they saw movement through the slowing growing crack between the doors.

*And being found by a bunch of splicers would be very INconvenient.*

Her father was already sprinting to the nearest side of the tunnel and put his back to it next to a support beam. A moment later he looked like a section of the wall, but she was worried. While using the Chamaeleon Gear Booker could only hold the autopistol or the heavy revolver. The shotgun and Tommy Gun were too large and could not be disguised by the Gear. If he was spotted, the splicers would have the advantage in firepower.

It took nearly a minute for the doors to rubble to a halt. She wondered how such slow moving doors would be able to seal off the greenhouse in case of flooding in the tunnel. And the tram tracks? How did... Ah. A small bridge span on the other side of the doors. It would lower into place like a drawbridge and a tram could move across it with ease.

Just before the doors fully opened three Saturnine walked into the tunnel. The first was a woman with a long dress that was common before the war and two men in suits. One of the men had a machine gun, but the others didn't carry a weapon.

The woman asked "So how are supposed to find that damn Frosty."

The splicer in white responded. "Don't know. But Lasseter said to get rid of them."

The man with the machine gun broke in. "But the Frosty already got Arne." The group was nearly up to where Booker was hidden now, even if they were on the other side of the tunnel. She hoped it was far enough they wouldn't see him.

"Arne was stupid anyways." the woman said in a dismissive tone. "But if Lasseter is so hot to get rid of anyone defying the Saturnine, why can't I get the bitch Langford?"

"I already told you, Dot. So long as Langford doesn't muss with the Saturnine by coming to far into forests, we aren't supposed to hurt her."

"But why?" the woman asked. "She violates the ground every time she comes into Arcadia! This is our land!"

"Maybe it's because without Langford there's no Arcadia?"

"But..."

"So long as she knows who's running this here and gives tribute, no one is supposed to touch her. Got it?"

"Yeah, but some day!"

"Not until Lasseter says." The man told her harshly. The woman didn't say anymore as they continued walking down the tunnel. When the splicers were a short distance down the tunnel, Booker moved away from the wall and behind them. As he did so, he got out the Research Camera. He took a number of pictures from a safe distance and then carefully headed back to the now open airlock doors.

Just to the other side of the doors was what looked like a small tram station with a security checkpoint. That must be how they kept people who hadn't paid from getting to over to the greenhouses with the cabins. On the other side of the station was an another set of tracks that ran through the park. At least what they could see of it. About 50 yards from the station the tracks were swallowed by trees.

Booker walked to the checkpoint. "Humph. Trying to keep the poor riffraff out."

*But still let the rich riffraff in.*

"Got that right. Huh. A map of this place. Capital Park." He looked over the map for a short time. "Looks a bit familiar."

*It does?*

"Central Park in New York City."

*Part of Ryan making his own "better version".*

"Yeah. Entrance to this place is on the other side of the park. Should take about fifteen minutes. Then can start looking for you."

They did a quick search of the station and checkpoint finding some cotton candy, peanuts and two pieces of brass tubing. The security office had already been broken into most of weapons had been taken, the only thing they found was some pistol .38 ammo that Booker didn't want. Then it was through the woods to the main entrance.

It took over twenty minutes to cross the park. She didn't think Booker expected the park to be so large. What worried her was that he favored his left leg several times walking over. It was very slight, but enough that she noticed it. She hoped he wasn't trying to hide something serious from her.

When they found the entrance to the park it hadn't been quite what she had expected, but she should have. The area around the park entrance a filled with shops and restaurants.

"Huh. Anything to make a buck."

*Not like Columbia was much different.*

"Comstock used it as a way to control his supporters. Not as an end unto itself."

*All gotten through the abuse and exploitation of other people.* She didn't try to hide her disgust. Or forget what she had done to Sally.

"Always seem to be people who do it."

*So there are always going to be people exploiting others.* It was almost enough to make her think that the old versions of her that Booker had met had right about humanity being beyond hope.

"And them who try to stop it. Maybe if enough try... who knows?"

*And you know some of these people?*

"Matter of fact I do. Friend I mentioned yesterday is, was one of 'em. Get the feeling my daughter might be one as well."

*It would be nice, but after what I did to Sally...*

"You made a mistake and you did what you could to fix it. Do you think someone like Ryan or Fontaine would ever even consider trying to do something like that?"

They had gotten to the shops and restaurants now. Most had been looted already and neither of them really felt much need to go look through the remains. Then along one side they spotted several stalls with roll down metal shutters on them.

*Maybe we should look at those stalls. It shouldn't take long and Anna isn't working yet.*

"I guess." He said as he changed direction.

_Attention: Any public congregation of more than 4 persons is considered an actionable offense._

Not having to hear those announcements all the time had been nice.

There were six stalls and two of them had been broken into. Two corpses lay in front of the third stall with a sledgehammer at their feet. Booker found five dollars on one of the bodies before getting out the Research Camera.

"No needle marks."

*The Little Sisters haven't been in here.*

"Haven't seen any signs of a Big Daddy either."

*Or Little sister Vents. Good to know we won't have to search this place.*

"Let's see about this gate."

He picked up the sledgehammer, but just put it next to the shutters. Then her father bent over and grabbed the bottom of the shutter and after a moment of straining, lifted it up over his head. He held it open and quickly glanced to his left before shaking his head a moment. Holding the shutters open with one hand he grabbed the sledgehammer and put it in the track for the shutters. Then he carefully lowered the shutters so they would be held part way open by the sledgehammer.

*Easier than picking them off the floor like you did in Columbia?*

"Lot easier, things are heavy."

The business in this stall had sold nature themed novelties and was larger than she had expected. Booker headed for the register only to find it empty. Under the counter they did find some film and some coffee. The next stall had only empty shelves and scraps of paper on the floor in front. In a small back room they found a battery and an Audio Diary.

_Ted Caldwell: Closing Up Shop._

_December 17, 1958_

_First Ryan makes people pay to get into the park. Then it was all that trouble with Fontaine. Now we got these splicers wearing those stupid masks raising hell. They steal from me and scare off the few customers that do come in here. And you can't catch the sons of a bitches! Anytime you get close, they vanish in a puff of smoke! I can't take it anymore, I'm losing money hand over fist. If I liquidate everything now, I might be able to keep the bank off my back for a couple more months. _

*It seems that this "paradise" didn't work out so well for him even before the fighting started.*

"Don't think going to work out for anyone before it's over."

*No, no it's not.* He had seen what Rapture will look like in 1960 just as she had. They moved onto the last stall. She was surprised by what was inside.

*They sold rugs here?*

"Picnic blankets." Her father said as he reached out to look at one.

*And those are?*

"When we go on a picnic, put down one of these blankets so we don't get out clothes stained from sitting on the grass." "Not that it helped much with you." he finished with an amused tone.

When Booker said things like that she really wanted to know what Anna had been doing. But she also didn't want to know because she would be too embarrassed.

Nothing useful in front, but on the top of an empty safe in the back was a Gear. When they examined it they found it was called Electric Eel. It had the same effects as Columbia's Electric Punch. They left the stall and continued on towards the entrance.

After turning a corner they could see ticket booths a short way down the street. To their right was what had been a restaurant called "Pan's Feast" and on the left "Plasmids for YOU!". The Plasmid store was a ransacked ruin with broken Plasmid containers scattered all over and signs of weapons fire. They could see three bodies in the store and four more on the ground nearby.

"Splicers started fighting over the Plasmids."

*And killed each other.* Booker checked the two bodies farthest from the ruined Plasmid store and researched them. One of them had pockets filled with chocolate bars. Her father seemed to be a little hesitant to get to close to the store for some reason.

*Is something wrong Booker?*

"Wrong?" He was being stubborn.

*You don't want to go into this Plasmid store.*

He hesitated a split second before responding. "Can smell the Plasmids."

Smell? *You mean the ADAM.*

"Maybe. When I smell it, makes me want it. Not nearly as bad as quitting smoking, so don't worry. Not going to become like him." he said as he pointed at one of the dead splicers.

*I'm not worried about that. One thing I know about you is that you don't quit when you put your mind to something.*

What DID worry her was how fast her father was showing symptoms of ADAM Sickness. The amount of medical literature on it had suspiciously small when she had been in Rapture before, but the rate that Booker was coming down with symptoms was far in access of anything she had even heard rumors about. It was if he had been first exposed months ago rather than less than two weeks. That was impossible though. ADAM, Plasmids and Vigors didn't exist in Booker's, didn't exist in *their* reality. Maybe the Communication Plasmid or one of the others Booker had taken had been flawed? Old Man Winter certainly had been.

'Nothing to do for now, but there has to be something, someplace.'

They finished up with the bodies at the Plasmids For You! store and Booker looked over to Pan's Feast.

"Want to take a look?"

*Shouldn't take long. It still looks to be in good shape.*

They walked up to the door and discovered why it was in such good shape. The door control had sparks flying out of it and there were no windows. It seemed odd to her that a restaurant wouldn't have windows, unless they didn't want people looking in from the outside for some reason.

"Get to try out the Electric Eel already." He said as he hit the door control. A moment later the door opened and they stepped inside.

I was darker in here than she had expected and larger. The eating area had big long tables with chairs or benches on either side. Plates and large cups had been left on them. The walls had been made to look like trees and the roof was covered with branches and fake leaves. Scattered about the room were statues of a man with horns on his head and the legs of a goat. Often embracing these figures were statues of naked women.

"What is this Pan?" Booker asked clearly puzzled.

*Pan is god from Greek Mythology. He represented the forest, music and sex.*

"Not exactly the kind of place you bring the kids to."

*This is Rapture, it wouldn't surprise me if they did.*

They looked around the main hall, but didn't find much. They started to head towards the kitchen when a man dressed like a chef burst screaming and "I just cleaned that!" through the doors swinging a heavy frying pan. Booker wasn't quite fast enough to dodge, but his Shield absorbed the blow.

"Fella, don't mean any…" Her father's voice trailed off when he got a good look at the man's face. Or what was left of it. The right side was sagging horribly and the left was bloated and looked about ready to explode.

The splicer swung again, but Booker dodged and hit him with the Air Grabber giving him a strong electric shock. Her father stepped behind the splicer and hit him in the back of the head, to knock him out.

"Let's check this place over before he wakes up."

They looked in the kitchen and the place was unbelievable clean. Every glass was spotless and the pans shone brightly in the light.

"Guess he liked thing clean."

*Probably some form of compulsive disorder caused by splicing.*

"Guess I should consider myself lucky just seeing things."

To their surprise there was no food in the restaurant. The mad chef had thrown it all into the trash. In the manager's office thought they did find an Infusion. Booker said he was putting to Health. Some of the hits he had taken worried him apparently.

When they went to leave Pan Feast the mad chef had vanished. "Probably going to try and clean the dirt or something." Booker joked. She wondered a moment if that wasn't what would the chef would try to do.

Finally they were at the ticket booths with the exit beyond them. Booker easily jumped over a turnstile and then waited several moments before shaking his head and muttering a soft curse. They walked across the small area filled with benches and greenery to the heavy airlock door which would lead them to Arcadia.

-Booker-

Damn it, damn it, damn it! It was getting harder to remember Elizabeth wasn't really here. He almost asked her to pass him something in that Pan place. And he was sure she realized it was getting worse. His standing and waiting for her to get through the turnstiles was a dead giveaway.

But they were at the entrance of Arcadia now. He pulled open the heavy airlock door and went into the airlock. Through the airlock was a large room with plants and neon signs all over. It took a moment to realize that there were three other airlock doors in the room and they all led someplace different.(1)

*This is a hub. From here you can get to all the different parts of Arcadia.* Elizabeth said as she looked around.

He read off the signs "Farmer's Market, Arcadia and Elysium Tower." He looked behind him and the sign over the door they had just passed through said Capital Park. Below it a sign saying that admission was twenty five dollars.

*I think we can ignore the Farmer's Market for the moment and we know Anna isn't in Elysium Tower.*

"This is all part of Arcadia?" he asked looked at the advertisements for the Tea Garden, Rolling Hills and other locations.

*Yes, from what I heard it's not very large despite all the grandiose names.*

"Easier to search then." He said as he walked over to the airlock that led to Arcadia. Shortly they were standing inside of it. The walls here looked like mortar and stone with large wood support beams. There where trees, vines, flowers, several benches and an oversized boulder that forced everyone to walk around it to get to the ticket booths. The booths were similar to those in Capital Park, but they didn't have turnstiles, instead there were gates. Lucky they were open.

They walked past the booths and into another chamber, to the right was an archway and a very wide flight steps leading up. There were several splicers in the area, but they didn't seem as if they were ready to attack. They kept a close eye on them, on him though.

"Not as big as Capital Park is an understatement. Why would anyone bother to come here?"

*It's probably a lot cheaper.*

They walked up the steps and spotted a Circus machine on the right, but the way he was being watched it would have been a bad idea to try and hack it. A short distance from that was a Power to the People machine. He upgraded the shotgun so it did more damage. Then it was out into the Tree Farm and the rest of Arcadia beyond it.

They spent several hours walking around Arcadia. Rolling Hills, the Tea Garden, Waterfall Grotto, Arcadia Glens and the exit to Rapture Metro. There were Little Sister Vents scattered all over, but didn't see a Little Sister or Big Daddy. He did see traces of Big Daddies though and they saw a number of corpses that had been harvested. He had the urge to burn down the posters that said "Who is Atlas?" but was able to restrain himself.

He didn't get why there would be a stream running through the place. At least they could have made it look a little realistic.

There were several Security Cameras and turrets here which he researched and then used the Bypass Plasmid on.

Both of them were surprised by the number of people that were still here. They couldn't tell if they had been trapped by the lockdown or they chose to stay for some reason. The floors in a lot of Arcadia were wood and creaked when he stepped on them. While the Gear could keep his footsteps silent, it couldn't stop a board from making noise when he put his weight on it.

They kept their distance from the other splicers and no one tried attacking them but they did witness several fights. The first one between a Bruiser dressed in a football uniform and woman armed with a shotgun and the Insect Swarm Plasmid. Both were already mad, the football player ranting about pleasing "Mr. Ryan" and the woman tried instructing him on proper etiquette. In the end they killed each other. The woman fell to the pipe wielded by the football player and her killer died a moment later, the victim of a swarm of bees.

The next fight was a larger one. Three splicers against a pair of Saturnine. In the end the garishly painted Houdini splicers killed the other three splicers, though one of the Saturnine died as well. Before she vanished, the surviving Saturnine screamed out "This is what you get when you trifle with the Saturnine!"

They finally got to the far end of Arcadia which turned out to be a graveyard with some tombstones and three mausoleums. Something seemed a little off with them. Looked like they had been used a lot recently. Course with all the fighting it shouldn't be a surprise.

Elizabeth seemed slightly amused. *Someone must be rich.*

"Have to be rich to be buried?"

*Yes. It's common practice in Rapture to incinerate the dead. Despite all the land in the greenhouses, it's not used for something sentimental as graves. The cost to get a grave here makes the prices for Memorial Gardens in Emporia look reasonable.*

"Don't plan on buying a hole in the ground." he said has he turned to go back to the Tea Garden.

*Could you stay a moment?*

He stopped and turned to look around again. Elizabeth was quite, as if she were trying to recall something.

*I think this place is connected to Jack somehow, like he will spend time here.*

"You want to help him."

*I... I don't think we can, not now. I don't even remember when Jack arrived, much less what would help him when he gets here. If I could still see behind the doors, then I would know what could be done.*

"We could make it worse rather than be of help."

*Yes. We should get back to looking for Anna.*

Her not being able to help Jack bothered her. An idea struck him. What if she *had* helped and just didn't rem... A dark ally, Anna, popcorn on the ground, he was talking to...

what?...

something... never mind. Need to start looking for a Big Daddy.

They picked a spot near the only Gather's Garden they could find in the area and waited. There was a U-Invent a short distance away as well as a Vent and a Health Station. The could hear the creek as it flowed through the canal a short distance away and the hum of a Vita-Chambers. The area was a bottleneck and a Little Sister would have to pass by this area to get to the Tea Garden and beyond. He had been doing research when he thought the splicer wouldn't notice and had nearly gotten to the top level of the Houdidi, Thugish and Lead Head splicers. He managed to get to the second level for EVE Addicts, Nitro's and Bruiser. And for that he got Gene Tonic formulas for Eve Saver and Armored Shell.

Elizabeth said that the EVE Saver would make his use of EVE more efficient, but had no idea how it worked. They both had an idea what Armored Shell did to a person's skin from the Bruiser's they had seen and he wanted no part of it.

"Don't seem to be many of them that climb on the walls here."

*Huh! I hadn't noticed that. We didn't see a Spider Splicer in the green houses either. Haven't seen many of those Controller Splicers either.*

"In some parts of New York people drank whisky, in others gin."

*You're saying that certain Plasmids would tend to be popular in one part of Rapture and not another. That makes sense.*

That was when they heard the heavy tread of a Big Daddy. Then the sounds of gunfire.

*Some fool is attacking a Big Daddy.*

"Better make sure the fool doesn't accidentally win."

End Chapter 51

(1) Yes, I decided to add a new "section" to Arcadia. It makes zero sense that the main entrance to Arcadia comes from the Farmer's Market and there isn't ANY way to get into the Farmer's Market. So I added a Hub that connects everything. You can pretend we didn't see the Hub in BS1 since it wasn't needed to be seen and added nothing to the story.


	52. Chapter 52

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 52

-Booker-

It wasn't hard to track down the fight between the Big Daddy and them attacking him. Between the gunfire and the big guy's roar, figured half of Arcadia heard it. Sounded like it came from the Waterfall Grotto. He and Elizabeth were half way there when the sounds of the fighting stopped. The last shots had been from a Rosie's Rivet Gun.

No need to hurry now. The fool that tried to attack the Big Daddy was certainly dead.

Elizabeth came up beside him as he slowed to a walk. *That didn't last very long.*

"Only heard one machine gun. Musta been only one splicer."

*One dead splicer now.*

_Approaching a Little Sister is a criminal offense. Do not approach the Little Sisters. _

'Guess someone should have payed attention to that one.'

When they got into the Grotto's entrance a slightly damaged Rosie was standing guard over a Little Sister. The girl wore a dark blue dress and was kneeled down next to a corpse. The blood on the floor around it was fresh. Must have been the splicer that attacked the Big Daddy. "Aw, this angels all ready now. Just a little prick and it will be all over." Then she jabbed the long needle in the till warm corpse.

It wasn't Anna, but what she was doing still made him sick inside.

The Rosie swung around to face him and he stopped moving. But Elizabeth continued walking a few more steps, a concerned look on her face. He almost told her to stand back before he caught himself.

He got the camera out and started researching and got about half another level on Little Sisters and Rosies.

"So where to next?"

*We've already seen the Little Sister for this area, I think Rolling Hills would be the next best place to wait.*

"Guess I can sit up on one of the boulders."

*With the Gear, no one should notice you.*

"Long as I keep still."

After the Little Sister and the Big Daddy walked away, they check the body, but found only a crème filled cake. They passed through a set of doors towards the Rolling Hills when a huge Bruiser splicer dressed in a torn suit came towards them carrying a shovel. He was talking to himself.

"Had to do it. She betrayed me. Had to kill her. Why. Won't. She. Stay. DEAD!"

Booker quickly went back through the doors into the Grotto.

Wasn't fast enough. "Hey! Come back here! Alice! I just want to talk!"

He flattened himself against the wall next to a pillar that was partial covered by leafy vines. A moment later the Gear activated. Just after it did, the bulky splicer came through the doors, shovel ready to swing. Now that he was closer he could see there was something wrong. Well, more wrong with this splicer than the others. The Bruiser's was red faced and clothes soaked in sweat. His movements were fast, but oddly jerky, like he was having trouble controlling them. And despite all the bulk muscle, he looked thin somehow, like he hadn't eaten for some time.

The splicer looked around frantically, but didn't see him or Elizabeth. "Alice. Come on out Aaaalice. I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything! If you stay dead this time, I won't have to hurt you anymore! Aaaaalice!"

He staggered a little. "Must be... Yeah, Ok, Alice isn't here. Just, see'n things. Get something to eat, feel better… Find Alice." The Bruiser turned and headed back the way he'd come.

*Something is wrong with him.* Elizabeth said as she took a few steps towards the door. Not here. She isn't here.

"Really?"

She gave him an irritated look. *I mean he looked both emaciated and hyper.*

"Something more ADAM did to him?" He stepped away from the wall, but walked towards the U-Invent at the far end of the entrance area. No one else was around, be a good time to practice hacking these things.

*I think his metabolism is too high, Much too high.*

"What would that do to him?" He bent down and took off the access panel.

*His body will burn itself out. If he doesn't starve to death first.*

"Burn out?"

*His high metabolism is putting an enormous strain on his body. Sooner or later his organs will start to fail, he can suffer a heart attack or he may just die from overheating.*

"Like running an engine too hard, too long."

*That's a good analogy.*

"Think all these Bruisers have the same problem?"

She thought a moment. *It's possible. I wonder if the Research Camera has any information on them.*

"Can check when we get to the Rolling Hills."

He was finished with hacking the U-Invent and got up to leave. He checked to make sure the mad Bruiser was nowhere to be seen. As he did so, a pair of Leadhead Splicers walked in through the other set of doors. Fortunately, they just ignored him as they continued talking about heatedly about something. Elizabeth said they were arguing about reductionist philosophy.

Turned out climbing one of the big rocks wasn't going to work so well and had to settle for sitting in a corner of one of the larger "rooms" a little way from a Grenade Turret. It took a little while for Elizabeth to figure out enough about the Camera to get it to display raw information.

As they worked, a number of splicers walked by, but took no interest in him. He wondered if some of them even noticed him and Elizabeth. One Nitro was totally lost in his own world talking about starting a business and that it wasn't too late.

When they got the camera to do what Elizabeth wanted, they discovered that it only kept the last subject photographed in memory. So while they couldn't learn anything about the Bruisers, they could find out some about the Rosie.

Elizabeth was mildly disappointed by not being able to prove her theory about the Bruisers, but sat next to him as he scrolled through information on the Rosie. 'Should have brought one of those picnic blankets.'

*I don't even understand half of this, but the Big Daddies are even more altered than I expected.*

"Altered?"

*Warped might be a better term. I'm not even sure if the people in those suits look human anymore. I don't even see how they can live for more than a short time…* her voice trailed off, lost in thought.

After a couple of minutes. "Short time?" he asked politely.

*Oh, Sorry. When I was in Suchong's lab I found out that the Big Daddies are dependent on ADAM from the Little Sisters to survive. Without ADAM the…changes that have been inflicted on them would kill them before very long.*

"What sort of changes?"

*Those poor people have been fused with those suits for one thing. If someone tried to take one of those suits off, it would rip off their skin and probably some of their major organs. The camera says the Big Daddy has several times the muscle mass for an average person and it's a lot denser than it should be, the heart is at least double its normal size and there are chemicals in his blood I've never even heard of.*

"Get the idea. What kind of Plasmids and Tonics could do that?"

*They must be using Tonics and Plasmids that aren't sold to the public. Some of the other things, I can't even guess for how it is done, but it must be a horribly painful process.* Sounded to him that even Handymen were better off than the Big Daddies.

"Don't think people down here know about this."

*I doubt most people in Rapture would even care.* She was probably right. How many cared for the Little Sisters?

"So how do the Sisters give ADAM to the Big Daddies?"

*There is ADAM all through the Little Sister's bodies and a large amount in the blood. The Little Sisters...* she looked down suddenly. *Sorry.* Whatever it is, she probably just imagined herself doing it.

"It's ok. Don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

*No, you should know this. Little Sisters draw their own blood and inject it into the Big Daddy.*

He winced inside. Injecting you own blood into someone else? "Isn't that dangerous?" What was it? "Different blood types?"

*The ADAM in the Little Sisters blood would heal any damage caused by the difference in blood types almost immediately. Or since it's ADAM it may just adapt to the blood type of the Big Daddy.*

From further up Rolling Hills they heard a loud voice. "Aaaalice! Where are you Alice!" It was that Bruiser again.

No good place to try and blend into a wall here. "Think we should move further down."

*There's a Vent near Langford's Laboratories and the Metro. It would be a good place to set up.*

"Better than stayin' here." The walked down to the large open area outside the Metro. As it had been earlier, the door to the Metro was sealed. Number of large trees here, but he really didn't fancy trying to sit in one for long. Tree climbing was more something Anna enjoyed. Didn't want to sit in a corner again, raised area on the right side of the Metro entrance was better.

Took him a moment to climb up and as he did he notice something on the wall on the wall behind the vines. Some kinda glowing things. He turned to help Elizabeth up, but she was already standing beside him. Not here not here not here.

*Those symbols. I think they're for Astrology, but what are they doing here?*

"Expect splicers to make sense?"

*Not really. It looks like someone copied these symbols out of a book and put them up on the wall to scare people.*

"Sounds like something that those Saturnine would do."

*That it does.*

He looked over at the raised section on the other side of the Metro entrance. More of those glowing symbols and a lot of them. "Looks like someone was busy."

They sat down a started reading the history book again. They hadn't gotten very far when they heard the heavy footsteps of a Big Daddy. He was walking down from inside Langford's place. A female splicer near the entrance also heard them and quickly decided to leave the area. He and Elizabeth jumped down and moved closer to the Little Sister Vent on the other side of the entryway to the Laboratory.

_We all move the Great Chain, and the Great Chain moves us all. _

He stopped besides one of the trees and glanced up. An enemy could be anyplace, especially in a place where people crawled on walls.

"What's that?" Up in the branches of the tree there was something made of sticks.

*Some kind of art?*

He changed position to get a better view. Whatever it was it looked like it had a head and arms. Supposed to be a person?

*Primitivism.*

"What?"

*It's a style of art were the artist takes things from tribal or prehistoric art. It's not a very popular style in Rapture.*

He looked at the trees more closely. "Think there are some other things like these around."

*It seems odd an artist would hide his work in trees.*

"Saw one making an ice sculpture in the middle of a tram line not long ago."

The Big Daddy was standing in front of the Little Sister vent now and he pounded on it with his left hand. Booker got out the camera and focused it on the Rosie as it pounded on the vent again. Maybe there wasn't… Then they heard noise from the Vent and a Little Sister's head poked out. Not Anna.

"Good morning Mr. B! I can smell an angel."

The Rosie then helped the girl to the ground and he started taking pictures. Less than a minute later he was finished. Not quite to the next level on either Little Sisters or Rosies.

"Why are they always looking at me?" the girl asked as the pair started walking towards the upper Rolling Hills.

Elizabeth looked after the pair with a sad expression. She straightened and turned… no, not real.

*There may not be another Little Sister in here. Arcadia is a lot small than I expected it to be.*

"So we try the Famer's…"

The Securis door to the Rapture Metro rumbled, getting ready to open. They quickly took cover behind one of the larger trees. No tellin' who could be coming through the Metro, but it was a good bet they worked for Ryan. Couldn't risk looking around the tree trunk, easy for somebody to see him, have to listen.

One, two.. three people. One had a little shorter stride, sharper, a woman maybe?

Then a woman's voice rang out. "Would you stop dawdling Albert? There's work to be done!"

"Yes, Professor." Albert responded with a put upon tone in his voice.

*This could be Langford.*

*Best to avoid her then.*

The footsteps went to the stairs outside the entrance and up them. No one should be looking this way anymore so he looked out from behind the tree trunk. Three people. A woman in a long white lab coat that must be Langford and two men armed with shotguns. The Professor looked to be unarmed. None of them seemed to be splicers, but at this distance could be hard to tell.

Time to go.

*Wait, I want to find out a little about this Langford woman.*

He mentally shrugged and kept his post by the tree.

"Those wretched Saturnine." the Professor yelled as she kicked at an empty toolbox in the entrance to the lab. "Between them and Ryan's security lockdowns, how am I supposed to keep my plants healthy and do my research!"

*She doesn't seem that happy about the "tributes" to the Saturnine.*

"Seems more like a protection racket." he told her softly.

"Maxwell! Go check on that new batch of L-17 fertilizer that was cooking. If those idiots played with anything, you get back here immediately!"

"Yes, Professor." and Maxwell rushed off to the corridor down past one of those El Ammo Bandito machines.

Faintly they heard Maxwell call back. "The door's open." He knew the door hadn't been open when they looked down here earlier. He didn't like this.

"Then get back here!" Langford yelled. She actually seemed rather worried. "You know that the L-17 is unstable at this stage." Albert took a step back getting ready to run. "It will be a lot easier to replace the L-17 than it will be to replace a half competent assistant!"

*She seems to enjoy heaping praise on her employees.*

Maxwell wasn't going to give up. "No, I think I can fix this."

"Maxwell!" There were ten seconds of silence.

"Oh, no."

*Did Maxwell just say..*

"Think he did."

Next was the sound of someone running. "Look out! It's going to..." whatever he said was lost a loud explosion.

This was something he did NOT want to get involved with. He was just about to turn to leave when Elizabeth yelled at him.

*Booker! What are you just standing there for?*

Langford rushed in the direction of the explosion while Albert continued to back away.

"Rushing up there not the best way to avoid attracting attention." He got the feeling he'd already lost the discussion.

*That man could be hurt. And saving Langford's assistant will get you on her good side.* Before she had even finished talking, he started moving towards the entrance.

"And she might know something we can use." he concluded as he increased his pace.

As he reached the stairs and heard Langford calling for Albert to help. Albert wanted no part of it and ran down the steps, heading for the Metro.

"Get back here! Coward! You're fired! You hear me? Fired!"

Booker went up the steps and down to the corridor. Langford was futilely trying to lift a heavy wooden beam off of Maxwell. Couldn't tell if he was still alive or not, but he thought he alive. A large piece of concrete kept the full weight of the beam off the man. Didn't like the look of the ceiling, it probably wouldn't last long. Probably why Albert had run. Elizabeth wisely stayed close to the entrance.

As he got closer Langford called out to him. "Hey, you! Get over here and help me!"

"Bossy." He muttered under his breath as he picked his way over.

"Could you please…" He didn't wait for her to finish and picked up the end of the beam laying on the piece of concrete. Heavy, but nothing he couldn't handle.

As soon as he lifted the beam far enough, Langford started pulling on Maxwell. He moved a couple inches and stopped.

"Come on you old bat, pull!" she yelled at herself. "I think he's caught on something."

Couldn't put down the beam, needed something to prop it up. He looked around, nothing. Move the beam to the side? Only moved an inch.

"Max! Wake up!" Langford yelled in the man's ear.

Didn't think Max would be waking up that quickly. Certainly not soon enough to help himself. Had to get something to hold the beam up, even for a few seconds. Wait, there was something that could hold the beam.

*Booker, the Bucking Bronco!*

"Just thought of that." he told her.

"Just thought of what?" Langford half demanded.

"This." He brought up Bronco on his left hand and held the beam with right. He cast the Plasmid and the end of the beam floated in the air. Good enough. Maxwell was floating as well. He quickly grabbed the man and pulled, dragging him from under the beam. Once Maxwell was out from under the beam he didn't stop. Wasn't going to stop until he was down by next to Elizabeth.

Langford stood there surprised. "What are you doing!?"

"Get out of there! The roof is going to give!" he yelled back at her.

She looked up a moment and decided he could be right. Despite the head start, she got to the entrance before he did and Elizabeth had to dodge aside to avoid being run over. He lay the man down just as the Bronco ended and dropped the beam back to the floor.

Must have been the last straw as the ceiling collapsed just a moments later, filling the corridor almost up to where the El Ammo Bandito stood. The machine chose that moment to play something.

_Bienvenido al Ammo Bandito!_

Felt like shooting it. Instead he reached for a First Aid Kit. Noticed there was a dead splicer in the rubble. Must have been someplace above when things gave way under his feet. No help for him now, best tend to the living.

Elizabeth looked Maxwell over. *He doesn't look in to bad a shape.* No she wasn't. She wasn't here. Not real. *Give him a First Aid Kit, he should be ok.*

"Is he going to be Ok?" Langford asked as he used the Kit.

"Should be." Maxwell groaned and started to move. Booker got up and stood back.

The image of Elizabeth stood off to the side looking on with an amused expression.

Langford walked over to stand near the man on the floor. She looked concerned for the barest moment then put on a stern face. Maxwell opened his eyes and sat up.

"Get up Maxwell." Langford ordered.

The man scrambled to his feet as his boss dressed him down. "I told you not to go down there. Do you have a problem following orders? Well?"

The man stammered a moment before responding. "No Professor!"

"Good! Now get up to my office and see if can get the equipment and supplies to make a new batch of L-17. Well, what are you standing there for? Get going!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Maxwell called over his shoulder as he scrambled for the Securis door that went to the laboratory.

"And that's Professor!" Langford called after him.

*This "Professor Langford" is quite a character.* Couldn't tell that she liked Langford some or just thought she was amusing.

When Maxwell was out of earshot the woman turned back to Booker and looked him over. "Well you certainly are a different kettle of fish."

"Excuse me?"

"You're a splicer, sane and you didn't make me sign a contract before helping."

'Sane is debatable' he thought to himself.

"Thought you might be able to help me a little with something." he explained.

"And here it comes." Langford rolled her eyes. "The good looking ones always want *something* and it's usually the wrong thing." Then it was Elizabeth's turn to roll her eyes.

"Just looking for some information for a job. Name's Robert Boston."

Langford put her hands on her hips and eyed him skeptically. "What kind of information."

"Nothing that important. Just if a new Little Sister had been sent down here past few days."

Langford made a face. "I stay as far as I can from Little Sisters as I can. I have enough trouble with my trees and I don't need trouble with those little girls. I don't even know who to talk to about them."

"Do you at least know how many Little Sisters are in Arcadia?"

"Why do you want to know?" She seemed unsure. Have to play it careful.

"Need to find a specific Little Sister. Had some information that she might have been sent here."

"And who would hire someone to find a Little Sister?"

He smiled in a friendly way. "Sorry, can't talk about that. My client doesn't want people know who he is."

Langford turned a little to the right a little to think and brought her left hand to her chin. Might have her.

"Somebody rich who lost a daughter. Well, saving Maxwell is worth something Mr. Boston and it's not like it's a secret or anything. There are two Little Sisters in this part of Arcadia, two more over in the Farmer's Market. That's all I know."

"That is more helpful than you might think. Thank you."

"Can you use that armory you're carrying around?" Langford asked.

"Can take care of myself."

"Would you like a job? Make it worth your while and it would be a lot safer than being around those Little Sisters. "

Had to pretend to act interested. Can't raise suspicions now. "What kind of job?"

"Why security work of course! This old lady needs some protection and someone to keep those damn Saturnine out of my laboratories!"

He pretended to think a moment. "Sounds interesting, but I have a contract."

"Contracts will be the death of me." Langford complained as she threw up her hands. "Well, if you're still alive when it's over, come back."

"I will." as he and Elizabeth started walking towards the entrance to Arcadia.

-Elizabeth-

*So when do you expect to be done with this "contract"?* Booker had sounded totally honest when he had said he had a contract.

Her father rubbed his chin a moment as if he were thinking. "Fifteen years being a father to someone."

*Fifteen years! I'll be twenty years old by then!*

"Huh, best make it sixteen then, just to be safe. Figure might be extension for working part time after that."

She tried to get angry that he would be so presumptuous, but couldn't. The thought of growing up with him, it was overwhelming in a way. It had been what she wanted her whole life in the Tower. She wished she could give him a hug, or just hold his hand. Anna would have to give him a hug for her.

They had just entered the Tree Farm and started down the short flight of steps on the platform when they heard gunshots. Then yelling.

"Alice! I got you now! Stay dead this time!" 'That Bruiser again.' A woman started screaming but it was cut short by a wet crunching sound.

*He's between us and the entrance.*

Before Booker could respond the Bruiser came out from behind the small water tower in the middle of the farm and saw Booker. "Alice! Come back here!"

"Damn." The Bruiser was too close to avoid a fight this time. Instead of shooting her father got out the Research Camera and took three quick pictures of the charging splicer.

"You shouldn't have been stepping out on me Alice!"

The splicer looked like he was going to ram right into Booker. But at the last moment her father dodged aside and the splicer ran right past them.

The Bruiser couldn't stop and tripped to fall face first onto the steps. Booker had switched to the shotgun and fired twice before the splicer could stand back up. It really didn't seem to hurt the Bruiser that much. The madman jumped at Booker, swinging the shovel. Booker barely avoided the blow and fired the shotgun again, but it didn't even slow the splicer down.

"You shouldn't have done that Alice! Now I'm mad!"

'What was it going to take to put this lunatic down?'

Her father couldn't avoid the next swing and his Shield broke.

"Just one more Alice, just one more time!"

He used the Bucking Bronco and while the splicer was helpless in the air fired the shotgun once more, then hit him with the Air Grabber. The Shock Wave Gear hurling the Bruiser into the wall behind the platform.

To her amazement the splicer got back to his feet.

"Alice! You can't do that to me! It's not right!" the madman yelled in a hurt voice.

Booker threw a Devil's Kiss bomb at the Bruiser who screamed in pain as it detonated. He beat at the fading flames a moment, then ran at Booker again. Her father quickly loaded one round and fired. It was Explosive Buck and the Bruiser burst into flame. Again the splicer screamed and beat at the flames. Booker quickly loaded two more rounds as his Shield reformed.

Still on fire, the Bruiser came at Booker again. Her father fired twice more and finally the splicer collapsed. Booker had to back up to avoid the burning body landing on him.

"Guess I should pick up that Chlorophyll stuff if I see it."

*I think we.. should go for something elze happen.* 'Sleepy.'

Her father glanced at his watch, but it was too dark for her to read.

A gentle *Sleep tight...* was the last thing she heard before the dark closed in.

End Chapter 52


	53. Chapter 53

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 53

-Elizabeth-

Awake! Where is she? Dark. COLD! Someone shaking her? A Little Sister? Wait, I KNOW her! It's... A world of light and sound exploded in her face.

*Are you ok?* Knew that voice, Dad, Booker. Going to be ok. He was going to find her. It's OK. She spent a moment calming down, putting things together.

*Elizabeth?* She didn't know where she was. Signs advertising fresh produce, counters with apples, oranges, wheels of cheese, bottles of wine. Above the counters were stripped awnings. White and red or white and green. Walls were stucco with exposed wooden beams.

*Sorry. Something happened with Anna. It's ok now.*

*You were asleep for about twenty minutes then screamed something about a bad icy man.*

*I don't remember. I think another Little Sister woke Anna, me up.* Hard to remember anything. Did she have a nightmare?

*Feeling better now?*

*Yes, much. This is the Farmer's Market?*

*No sign of a Little Sister yet.*

"So what do you think of that?"

*Think of what?*

*Sorry, just talking to you while you're asleep.*

*Do you really think someone is watching you?* She had almost forgotten Booker was doing that.

"Never can tell."

*How long have you been here?*

*Just got here.*

They were in what looked like the main part of the market. There were a large number of people here, most of them were splicers and everyone was armed. People were dressed in all sorts of clothes. Suits, work clothes, one woman had an evening dress on, a fair number of men in football uniforms.

Some of the businesses were still open and if they were, they had someone with a gun nearby standing nearby. Guess that's one way to deter theft. Her father gave one of them a good looking over when he wasn't looking.

"No training, just splicers with guns."

*Considering that Langford was willing to hire you, I think it's safe to say that people are desperate.*

"Someone with a gun that doesn't know what they're doing can be worse than no protection at all."

*That bad?*

"Yeah. Got to know when to shoot and not to shoot. Take that one with the Tommy Gun."

*He looks like he wants to shoot someone right now.*

"Probably going to kill someone who sneezes at the wrong time."

Booker Bypassed the Security Camera to the right and took a moment to pretend to look at the cheese being sold at a nearby stall. Blending in.

_Welcome to the Farmer's Market. Shop safely in Rapture's premier location for fresh fruit, vegetables, wine and cheese! _

They passed through a set of sliding door that looked to be made of paper. Something had caused a lot of damage to the wall just ahead. There were three people arguing off to the right in front of Milton Cheese. This place seemed more like the "Cheese Market" instead of a farmer's market.

The arguing got louder. One man looked to be a Jockey given the electricity flowing over his body, the woman nest to him was a Spider Splicer. Opposite them was a man with two Security Bots hovering protectively over his head. People near the trio either kept their distance or tried to get further away.

"Don't think that's a way to go." Booker murmured to her.

They didn't need to get involved in that fight so he turned to the left. Large neon signs advertised the Silverwing Apiary and Worley Winery.

She couldn't help but make a small sound of distress. She had been tortured, shot and even died, but the thought of bees could still scared her.

"Don't like bees?"

*You know I don't! Don't tell me Anna likes them!*

He gave a slight chuckle. "Not at all."

The argument behind them grew louder.

Booker got out the camera. "Guess they won't notice now."

Just as he was about to take the first picture the Jockey let loose with Electro Bolt stunning the man with the Bots. Both Bots started firing and badly injured the Jockey before he was able to disabled them. The Spider Splicer had taken to slicing up the shocked man while the Jockey fought the Bots.

The camera labeled the splicer with the Bots a Controller Splicer. Malcolm must have been one before the Big Daddy killed him down in the Blue Ascot Apartments. The term Controller fit the creep to a "T".

The Electro Bolt on the Controller wore off and he quickly hit the woman attacking him with Enrage. The red coated splicer screamed in rage and turned to attack the Jockey.

Booker quickly finished researching and withdrew to the Securis door that went to the apiary and winery. Before the door closed, the Spider Splicer had killed the Jockey and turned to attack the Controller again.

"Guess that's a problem."

*Causing someone to attack anyone around them does seem to have its drawbacks.*

"Especially if you're the only one left to attack."

They were out in a short glass tunnel now. It turned to the right and the apiary was to the left with the winery at the end of the tunnel.

"Bees or wine?"

*What do you think? The Worley Winery.* If she was here in the Farmer's Market, there was no chance Anna would be in the apiary.

"Odd they would have bee hives here."

*Why wouldn't they have them here? This is where they grow all of Rapture's food.*

A splicer with a limp and a bloody bandage covering one eye walked past them going the other direction. He was talking to himself about how it wasn't fair that no girls liked him and that maybe he should go see Steinman. 'Good luck with that.'

"No fields that I can see here." he said after the splicer had gotten a short distance away.

*Maybe they grow flowers someplace nearby.*

"I guess." He didn't sound all that convinced.

They passed through a Securis door and into the winery. Taking the right branch of the curving passage they quickly found themselves in large room with tables, chairs and lots of wine bottles. This area was an imitation of a French provincial style with lots of wood and wine racks. To the left was a raised counter and behind it was a turret and a Security Camera. Someone was worried about something. A massive wine cask occupied the center of the floor and against a far wall was a Circus of Values. There were about fifteen people here and most seemed to be drinking or drunk.

Her father Bypassed the security systems while the woman at the cash register argued with a man who yelled at her in French. The woman clearly didn't understand French because some of the insults the man used were enough to make even her father flinch. She guessed Booker was a little more familiar with French due of Comstock's memories than he wanted to admit.

On the far side of the room was a flight of stairs heading down. It didn't look like an employee only area, but they needed to be careful. After a few moments a man came up the stairs, looked like a worker of some kind. His skin was ruined by splicing, particularly around his eyes. He talked to himself about how God's Light shown even down in Rapture.

Booker made sure to keep his distance from the splicer. "Think he saw a tear?"

*Wouldn't be a surprise if he did.* Something about his eyes. When you saw them, you knew that while the ADAM was driving him mad, some part of him still desperately clung to a shred of sanity. 'How long before he loses his grip?'

No one was looking their way and they quickly slipped down the stairs. The walls down here where stone with wooden beams. There were more wine racks, some small barrels and *vines* of all things. Lighting was poor down here, how could they grow?

In one area a section of the wall was missing and they could a number of wooden support beams and a little of the area below. On one of the support beams were some machine gun rounds. Her father used the Air Grabber to draw it to them. Twenty rounds of Anti-Personnel ammo.

"Nice." Her father said and tuned.

Standing in the middle of the hallway where it branched off to the right they found a man standing over a dead woman with a large wrench in his hand.

The man looked up and saw Booker. Rather than attack, the man took off running. With the cry "I didn't do it!" he ran down a flight of stairs. How deep did this place go? Booker glanced down the passage to the right. It was dark, but they could make out several large wine casks and could hear the hum of a Vita-Chamber.

Seeing no threat, they looked over the body of the woman. "Maybe he didn't do anything after all. She's been dead for awhile."

*The wrench didn't have any blood on it.*

"Might have used a different weapon." The tone of his voice made it clear he didn't believe it though. Just his way of saying "don't jump to conclusions".

A few more steps and they entered a moderately sized room with a U-Invent at the far end. They went to use the machine, but didn't find anything that wanted to make. Seemed that some machines were able to produce only certain things.

They turned to find that a young man in a tattered football uniform standing right behind them. How had he snuck up on them like that?

The young man didn't attack even though he had a pistol. He just stared at Booker with a strange look of reverence and expectation. Then started speaking.

"Is it ok now Dad? I did what you wanted. Gave it everything." The splicer seemed exhausted, as if it took all the strength he had left just to stand.

*Booker, he thinks you're his father!* 'He's MY Father! Not yours!'

"You did fine." her father told the man soothingly.

"It wasn't enough, was it? I don't have anything left." He didn't seem so tired now, starting to get angry.

She had the feeling trying to talk their way out of this wasn't going to work.

"You've done more than enough. You need to rest." Her father told him calmly as he slowly stepped back.

"You ALWAYS want MORE!" the splicer suddenly screamed pathetically and raised the pistol.

Before the splicer could pull the trigger Booker lashed out with the Air Grabber, the Electric Eel Gear sending electricity through the splicer. He wore a helmet so her father couldn't knock him out. There was a very slight hesitation as Booker changed the Gear he was using. The next blow sent the splicer crashing into the wall behind him.

He didn't get up.

When they researched the two dead bodies, the found that the woman had been dead too long to get anything, but the football player had been a Leadhead. On the former football player they found some money, an empty EVE Hypo, three pistol rounds and an Audio Diary.

_Lance Briston: Canceled Game_

_January 23, 1959_

_They canceled it. The game. It was supposed to be the game of the year, my big chance. There was a big fire at the stadium. News said it was Atlas's rebels. I don't know. Some of the guys are saying that Sea Bulls did it because they knew they would lose. I, I'm glad the game got canceled. So tired, can't sleep. I feel empty inside. Stuff the coach been givin' us makes me feel emptier. _

_I, I just want to go HOME._

The diary ended with the man starting to cry.

*Did their coach splice his players without them knowing?*

"Might have. Some people do near anything to win."

As they walked to the stairs leading down, they heard the heavy footsteps of a Big Daddy from below.

"Finally." Booker said with a tone of relief.

*I wonder how something so big and noisy can be so hard to find.* Booker glanced to the side as he gave a small laugh.

They were halfway down the steps when a splicer in a grey suit carrying a box under his left arm walked into view at the foot of the stairs. The splicer looked up and saw Booker.

"It's mine! You can't have it! It's miiiine!" he screamed before throwing a burning bottle at them. Booker dodged the bomb and it exploded behind them. Booker got out the Research Camera as he backpedaled.

"You're not taking it from me!" the splicer yelled as he ran up the stairs after Booker. Just as he got to the top step, her father started taking pictures very quickly. The Nitro Splicer hurled another Molotov Cocktail that Booker dodged. He wasn't able to avoid all the burning fuel though, but his Shield kept him from the flames. As the splicer reached for another bomb, Booker quickly fired the shotgun three times. The last shot knocking the splicer's dead body into the wall behind him. Several seconds later the box he carried exploded.

Booker brushed at the burning fuel on his Shield as it burned itself out.

*Doesn't that hurt?*

"Doesn't tickle."

*Sometimes doing research on live subjects isn't worth it. You need to be more careful.*

"Humph, not that big a problem." They walked over and searched the dead splicer. He had a rotten sandwich, a potato covered in gold paint and a container of Chlorophyll Solution.

*Now we have everything we need to make the Devil's Kiss upgrade.*

Booker made a non-committal sound.

*Remember that Bruiser? And it shouldn't make you any worse.*

He sighed slightly. "All right. After the Big Daddy."

_Andrew Ryan asks you a simple question: are you a man, or a slave?_

The heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs now and with them, a young girl's voice. "You look pretty today Mr. Bubbles!" She started to giggle.

Little Sisters think that Big Daddies are pretty? Am I going to be able recognize Booker when I see him?

"Not Anna."

*Still one more Little Sister here.*

The Sister was at the top of the stairs now and her father got out the camera. When they were done they had gotten another level of both the Little Sisters and Rosies along with the Tonic "Photographer's Eye 2".

The Little Sister and her protector headed for the stairs that would take them to the top floor of the winery.

"Three to many, three to many, three to many, three to many!" the girl kept saying.

They walked over to the U-Invent and Booker hacked it. As he did so, he kept a wary eye to make sure no one snuck up on him again.

"Any idea how this should work?"

*No. About all we can do is put what's needed for the Mod in there and see what happens.*

Booker put everything into the U-Invent and after a moment a message came up on the interface.

**Choose Formula Source**

Below it was a list.

**Mark IV compatible Memory Component**

**Type 3 Technical Schematic in Linter 2 Format**

**Direct Research Camera Output **

*Looks like this machine can read the camera's memory.* That was rather unexpected. Of course you couldn't just dump a bunch of material in a machine and then expect it to know what you wanted to make.

He looked for someplace to put the camera. "Memory Component must be what I used to make the Incendiary Ammo for the Revolver. Woulda been nice to know I didn't have to take one of these things apart to use it."

He looked for a minute, but couldn't find where the camera should go.

*I think you need to push the button first.*

"Oh, yeah."

One pushed button later, a small door opened on the U-Invent that was the correct size for the camera. As he put the camera in place she wondered what other Memory Components were out there and what might be on them. Tools? Weapons? Ammunition? Guess it didn't matter much since they hadn't seen any.

Booker put the camera in place and thirty seconds later a Hypo came out of the U-Invent filled with a bright red liquid. Her father picked it up and walked over to the nearest light.

"So how am I supposed to use this?" He knew the answer, but didn't like it.

*It has to be injected of course. Don't worry, I'll tell you how to do it properly. First get out some of that alcohol to clean...*

A few minutes later Booker was rubbing his left arm where he had injected the Plasma Mod. "Been shot and it hurt less."

She could believe that. These EVE hypo's were oversized and pushing all that fluid into your veins was going to be uncomfortable at the very least. *Does the Devil's Kiss feel any different?*

"No, didn't expect it to. Any reason to stay here?"

*I don't think there is anything more here for us. Let's find the other Little Sister.*

-Booker-

As they left the winery the feeling that Anna wasn't in The Farmer's Market grew. Wasn't the first time he'd followed a bad lead. But even if Anna wasn't here, wasn't a waste of time. Would have had to check Arcadia anyway.

Leg was bothering him a little again. The swelling must have started again. Might ask Elizabeth about it tonight if it got worse.

When they got near the apiary Elizabeth walked a little faster. Maybe been stung when she was younger, going through the Tears looking for him. No need to pry.

After passing through the Securis door they looked down to where the three splicers had been fighting earlier. Now there were three dead bodies. What was left of the Controller was against the counter, a dozen hooks sticking out of him. The Security Bots were nowhere to be seen. Someone probably already hacked them already.

The Jockey was lying on the floor with the Spider Splicer right beside him. Someone had arranged the two bodies. The Jockey actually had his hands folded on his chest. The female splicer wasn't as neat and there was a large pool of fresh blood around her head and neck. Her right hand still clutched a blood covered hook. A little closer they could see the woman's neck was also covered in blood.

*She killed herself.*

"Guess she didn't want to live without the other one."

His heart almost stopped. A distant scream of pain and terror. A Little Sister.

No, it couldn't be… "Anna?"

*It's not me! Where did that come from?* Elizabeth was looking around frantically trying to figure out where the scream had come from. A few of nearby splicers also looked around, a couple looked scared, some, looked hungry.

"Sounded back towards the entrance." He told her as he took off running.

Past the counters and the Security Camera. Nothing! Ran up to the entrance. Not here, wrong way. Back. Took a right and skidded slightly as he turned to go down some stairs. Elizabeth was right behind him. Had looked down the stairs earlier, now he went down them as fast as he could. Why hadn't the Little Sister screamed again? Where was the Big Daddy?

He was halfway down the stairs and he slammed to a stop. Just off to the left of the bottom of the stairs was a shape on the floor, not moving. A Little Sister in a red dress. He took a few steps closer. No, not a red dress.

Someone used a knife. And they CUT...

He glanced to the left where Elizabeth stood, her face a white as her blouse. "Don't look, just don't…"

He closed his eyes and leaned against a nearby wall for a minute. Seen a lot of bad things, but that was the worst. Even what had been done to Chen Lin was nothing to that. Was like something that Ripper killer in London did. He heard Elizabeth trying to keep from making a sound.

That's when they heard something. People talking, a cheer?

They walked to the bottom of the stairs, careful not to look at what was left of the girl. Walking down the passage under an overhead walk there was an open area with a grass and a tree. There was a group of seventeen or so people here. A man in dark blue coveralls walked a few steps up a flight of stairs so everyone could see and hear him. He turned to face the crowd. Didn't look spliced. Could see bloodstains.

These people HAD to know something.

The man in the coveralls started yelling loudly. "You see! That is how we do it! Take DOWN the Big Daddies and take back what was stolen from us! Take Back all the ADAM that Ryan steals from us!"

He took a step. His hands gripped the machine gun so hard they hurt. Everything was turning red.

*One of Atlas's men.* No hiding the hate in her voice.

"We have the RIGHT to it! The Big Daddies and Little Sisters are just Ryan's tools! We will BREAK them wherever we find them! Get back what is rightfully ours! That's the way Atlas showed us! Death the Ryan! Death to the Tyrant!" The speaker raised a bloody fist over his head, the Sea Slug he held still wriggling in his hand. Everyone in the crowd cheered. Some started chanting "Atlas! Atlas!"

Killed the girl. Will kill all the girls. Will kill Anna.

Kill. Them. FIRST!

He brought up the Devil's Kiss and threw a bomb into the crowd. As it exploded he was already throwing another one.

*Booker! What are you doing!* A far away voice yelled.

He opened up with the Tommy Gun. Another bomb. Five, no six were down. He wanted the speaker in the blue coveralls. Wanted to feel his hands crush his throat. Another fell from his machine gun fire. Surprise gone now. The speaker was yelling. Things shooting at him. His Shield took a hit of from a fireball as he dodged a bolt of lightning. Someone said something. Not important. Protect Anna.

Another bomb, more down. Enemy spread out. All die. Two swarms of bees engulfed eating away at his Shield. Taking hits from pistol fire. Shotgun hit, Shield gone. Machine gun empty. Shotgun.

Hit by something, flying back. Hit the ground hard. Felt like he woke up.

*Booker!* Elizabeth was yelling at him.

"Damn it!"

Stupid! Get up! Get to cover! He scrambled to his feet and took two hits from a pistol and those bees stings hurt! He quickly fired off Possession at a Bruised that was charging down on him. EVE empty.

The Possession worked! The Bruiser turned, screaming "They need to be protected!" and attacked the splicer nearest to him.

Took cover in an alcove with a U-Invent machine. Have to get rid of bees. He quickly refilled his EVE as the possessed Bruiser screamed in pain and rage as the other splicers turned on him. The screaming stopped quickly. One more down.

He built up fire around himself and burned away the bees. Use First Aid Kit and change Gear: Shock Wave, Shock Treatment, Urgent Care, Fleet Feet- reload the Tommy Gun with Anti-Personnel rounds. Elizabeth was quite now. Must be mad at him. She had the right.

He could hear what was left of the crowd coming down the passage. Not enough time for a Devil's Kiss Trap. He tossed a grenade around the corner and into the center of the group. Explosion. A dead body went flying past the entrance to the alcove as his Shield started to recover. Might have gotten more. Don't count on it. Shield back.

He stepped out of the alcove firing off Bronco at the group, now only ten feet away. One more dead from Grenade. Seven left. Got two of them with Bronco. Got hit with three Plasmids, weapon fire, Shield down, hurt. Back in alcove. Replace Urgent Care with Parasite Gear. Build up power on Charge Plasmid. Only two seconds. First Aid Kit. Change to shotgun.

Back out into passage. More hits. The Bronco had slowed the splicers advance. Released the Charge into the closest of the group. He smashed into a female splicer with a clamshell mask on. Sonic Boom knocking the dead body into the man behind her. Two more dead. Shield back at full. Got a little Health and EVE from the Gear.

He took a shotgun blast, electricity and several pistol hits. Still invulnerable from the Charge. Two of the splicers turned and started to run. "Self Preservation, Self Preservation!" one cried out. He could see the speaker again, still near the stairs. He had a Tommy Gun and started to fire. No real threat at this range. Have to kill the others first.

He fired twice into a splicer with the shotgun. Only two left close up now as the Bronco wore off. No longer invulnerable. A splicer with a pistol used it to club him and got a shock from his Gear. The other threw a fireball. Shield low already. Hit the pistol armed splicer with the Grabber and he smashed into the wall. Nothing from the Parasite Gear this time. Hit by another fireball, Shield broke.

He turned and quickly fired the shotgun twice more and the fireball throwing splicer fell. Shotgun needs reload, no time. Tommy Gun. There were only three left now. The two running away and the speaker. He shot the two running away in the back.

The speaker stopped shooting and started running up the stairs. He fired a quick burst, but only winged the running man. Even with the recoil reduced, still hard to get good hits at this range. He started running as the speaker reached the top of the stairs and went around the corner. That should put him about where the three splicers had fought earlier. He was going to catch that son of a bitch and kill him.

*Booker! Get back to the entrance! That's his only way out of here.* He was a little surprised she wasn't yelling at him. Sure she would later.

He turned around and headed back down the passage, past the alcove, past the remains of the Little Sister and up the stairs. Turned right at the turret and there was the speaker running towards them. The man pushed one woman aside and then rammed into another person knocking him down. He was looking back almost all the time. The fool was so worried about what was behind him, he didn't realize Booker was in front of him.

As the speaker reached the intersection Booker hit him with Bucking Bronco. The man floated in the air screaming as Booker walked up and yanked the machine gun from the man's hands. Then he just waited.

*Booker what are you...?* Elizabeth sounded worried.

The Bronco wore off and the man crashed to the floor. There was a look of utter terror on the man's face. He tried to scramble away from Booker, but quickly hit a counter. Booker got out the autopistol. Not going to waste good ammo.

The man dug into his pocket a moment and pulled out the Sea Slug. "Here, take it! Take It!"

A part of him wanted to take the Sea Slug. He wanted the ADAM, but it was a very small part and easily ignored. He checked that a round was in the chamber.

"The girl." he growled.

The man dropped the Slug and started talking fast. "Oh, you're mad about the Sister, right? Wanted her for yourself. I'm just following orders, understand?"

The man SMILED.

"Hey, I know somebody. When this is all over, I can see about getting one just for you." He couldn't stand to look at the bastard or hear his voice. "Your own private Little Sister. A man with your skills? That could just be the start!" The man's smile grew larger, confident.

Booker pointed the autopistol at the man's face and squeezed the trigger. The man had just enough time to realize what was going to happen before the bullet hit him between the eyes. He fired a second time just to make sure.

He automatically reloaded the pistol. He didn't feel any satisfaction. Killing him wouldn't bring the girl back, none of those people's deaths could. But Anna would be safe from them and so would the other Little Sisters. He noticed several of the splicers down by the display counters looking his way, no not at him. On the floor, but not the newly created corpse, either.

The Sea Slug. That was what they wanted.

He loaded a single round of Exploding Buck into the shotgun.

*Booker?* Elizabeth looked at him, unsure what he was going to do.

Pointed the shotgun at the Slug and fired. What was left of the Slug was burned to ash. None would get ADAM because of the girl's death.

He searched the dead body of the speaker to find a large sum of money, some Tommy Gun ammo and a First Aid Kit. Had hoped for some information. He reloaded his Tommy Gun with normal rounds and started walking down the passage past the Security Camera. The splicers that were still around made sure to keep their distance from him. Heading for the Circus of Values near where the splicers had fought earlier.

Elizabeth walked beside him with her arms crossed and a very displeased expression.

"Not sorry." he told Elizabeth. And he wasn't. Whatever her feelings, he wasn't going to be sorry he killed that bastard.

*You should be after running into a fight like that! You could have gotten yourself killed!*

She was right. Let his anger get the better of him. His shoulders slumped a little. "Yeah, shouldn't have done that."

*If you hadn't surprised them... what aren't you sorry about?* She looked at him a little suspiciously. NO! Elizabeth isn't here. In his head. It's in his head. Just in his head.

He took a breath. "Him." he told her as he gestured behind him.

*Atlas's man. After what he did to the Little Sister, he deserved it.* she said in a disgusted and bitter tone.

In some ways he would rather she had been mad at him about it. Wished had a way to make her forget about the Sister. She was angry at him now, but soon what had happened was going to hit her.

He was past the doors now and took a right down to where the three dead splicers were. Or had been, now there were only two. Someone had taken the woman's corpse. Didn't want to think why.

"Need to find something to wrap the girl in."

*You want to bury her?*

There were at a Circus of Values now. He went to hack it, not caring if anyone saw. "She shouldn't be left out like that."

*No, no she shouldn't. We can find a place in Capital Park or the Tree Farms. Someplace… someplace nice.*

With the fighting over the girl's death was starting to hit her more. "Time to be shut of this place."

End Chapter 53


	54. Chapter 54

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 54

-Booker-

They were back Elysium Tower to buy some things at Joffer's Hunting Supplies. Not much had changed since they had been here earlier in the day, but it felt like it had been a week since they had been here last. As he paid for everything he thought back over the last few hours.

After he had hacked the Circus machine they went down the stairs to the "park" where he'd attacked the splicers that had killed the Little Sister. All around were dead splicers. After researching them, they started looking for a makeshift burial shroud. There were some store rooms behind a counter that sold food and drinks.

This place had been Rapture's idea of an outdoor café.

Nothing he could use in the first store room, but in the second one they found the body of a dead Rosie. That answered the question of what had happened to girl's protector. Probably got ambushed as he went through the door. Killed before he could fight back. Inside the room were some canvas bags, they would have to do. He cut up the bags and used them to wrap the girl with and left for Capital Park.

While he had dug the grave for the Little Sister, Elizabeth stood off to the side, unable to help. He knew she was blaming herself for the girl's death, not being able to save her. Part of him felt the same way. It kept saying if he had gone a different way, he could have saved the girl. He knew that wasn't right though. There had been too many splicers even for him to fight. Only reason he was alive now was he caught them by surprise and killed many of them before they could fight back.

Had been a close thing as it was.

For Elizabeth it must be much worse. She knew she indirectly caused that Little Sister's death by releasing Atlas. But how long would the girl have lived? How long would any of the Little Sisters have lived if she hadn't acted?

Hard choice to have to make. Release Atlas to start the war knowing that some of the Little Sisters would die before it's over? Or do nothing and all of them live a few more years as slaves, to be killed when they're of no longer of use? Most wouldn't have lived more than a year or two if he hadn't destroyed the Tear Machine.

Easy to wash your hands, say it's someone else's problem. Lot harder to do something. He was sure that Elizabeth had done all she could do, but there are things that can't be changed. Constants like the coin. He remembered every time the other Bookers had flipped it for Lutece, the result had always been the same.

Constants and Variables.

They had chosen a peaceful looking area in Capital Park for the girl's grave. When he was done covering the girl, he used Bucking Bronco to help move a large stone to cover her grave with. Neither of them wanted it disturbed by some mad splicer. They quit Capital Park using the North Mainline Vent they had come in by.

Neither of them talked much.

The clerk at Joffer's gave him a slightly puzzled look at their purchases. Guess none had bought much in the way of camping supplies since the war started. He had two sleeping bags, a small kerosene camp stove and a large duffel bag to help carry everything.

As they walked back to Prosperity Way, two Thugish Splicers and a Leadhead tried to waylay them. Even after killing one and knocking out another, the last kept attacking. It felt like he was putting down a rabid animal rather than a person.

By the time they got back to the Way, Elizabeth was sure Anna had stopped "work" for the day. One or two people looked at what he was carrying, but most just minded their own business. Further down the Way they spotted a newly installed Health Station. Things were all over the place now.

As the got closer to the newsstand Elizabeth started talking a little more.

*There don't seem to be as many people out today.*

"No there aren't. Ones that are seem on edge." he murmured.

*Something might have happened that we don't know of.*

"Let's see if it did." and he walked to the newsstand where the evening editions were out. The Rapture Tribune and "Do Tell" had the normal pro Ryan headlines. The Rapture Standard didn't. It had "Mass Arrests at Welcome Center" below it "Peaceful demonstrators attacked by Ryan Security"

*The fools. They actually tried to force Ryan to let them leave Rapture.* Elizabeth said scornfully. He picked up the paper and handed the man the money for it.

"Better keep that one fella. Probably the last issue."

"It is?"

"Suuure it is. You think Andrew Ryan is going to let some stupid newspaper editor print that about him? Pfft! He's going to close it down or take it over."

"Don't you worry he might close you down?"

The man behind the counter made disdainful noise then burped. "Ryan's not going to bother with me. I didn't write that stuff. Don't believe it either. Better days ahead I tell you. Just wait until this all blows over and things be better than ever. No sweat."

Booker gave him a smile. "Hope you're right fella." and turned and headed for his room.

"Some of these people really bought what Ryan was selling." he told Elizabeth.

*Humph. Somehow I don't think that Ryan's going to get in trouble for false advertising.*

"No, don't think he will."

_Ignore the Rumors. Fontaine is dead. Rapture is on the rise._

Charles was behind the desk again and was looking tired. Did manage to give them a polite smile. They headed up to the room and glanced at the stories in the paper as they took the elevator up. Many of the stories were critical of Ryan. The whole paper was a litany of accusations ranging from abuse of power, false imprisonment even murder.

*They must have been sitting on some of these stories for months, years even.*

"Ryan isn't going to be happy at all."

*Good.* There was more than a hint of vindictiveness in her voice he couldn't blame her for it. *So, going down to the diner to eat?*

"No." he told her as he stepped out of the elevator. "Going to cook up something here and take this stuff down to the office. Enough time left head over to the plaza on the way to Olympus Heights and buy some clothes for you."

*Are you optimistic about finding Anna soon or pessimistic about the store not being there much longer?*

"Pessimistic. Rapture's falling apart."

*Can't say I disagree.* She was sounding a little better, but knew it would be some time before she was anywhere near feeling good.

After cleaning up a little, he quickly heated up a can of chicken soup. Didn't find anything resembling chicken in it though.

Didn't have time to read the entire paper, but read the main stories. The protest at the Welcome Center had gone as bad as they expected. Ryan was calling those that took part traitors and there was some suggestion that there might be executions for the "ringleaders". Another article gave evidence that Anna Culpepper hadn't accidentally slipped in her tub and drown, she had been murdered. Since she had been Ryan's only remaining opposition on the Council, it wasn't hard to see who had motive to kill her. Last major story was about that some of the prisoners sent down to Fontaine's had brought lawsuits against Ryan before being "convicted" of anything.

*Wait I recognize one of those names, Herschel Weiss. Comstock found some Audio Diaries by him. He was suing Ryan for false advertising about Old Man Winter.*

"Well, guess we know how Ryan deals with people that call him out on his false advertising now."

*Not surprised, are you.*

"Not the least."

The last thing was an official notice from the Council that Fort Frolic had been closed off. No reason given other than "security concerns".

*I don't think not being able to go back to Fort Frolic is going to be a major problem.*

"One of the last places to look. Might be open again by the time we need to look there."

*I certainly hope you find me before then.*

Left the room with the sleeping bags and camp stove for the office. They didn't see anyone else in the tunnels, but he noticed some fresh tracks. Three different sets, too small for an adult. Children out alone in Rapture? Neither of them thought it would end well.

The door to the cache hadn't been opened, but someone had tried. Must have been too hard to turn the wheel. The door to the office had been left alone though and he dropped off the duffel bag and its contents in Anna's "bedroom". Place needed a little more in defenses and an emergency escape route. Be bad to be trapped in there.

Then it was on to the Blue Ascot and Tantalus Place's Transit Hub. Tantalus didn't have many people, them that were there didn't look they were out to exercise. Out one of the windows they saw Ryan Stadium and even from this distance they could see fire damage. The Glass Tunnels that connected the Stadium to Tantalus Place had been destroyed.

*Guess that's a good reason to cancel a football game.*

"Must be why so many were in Arcadia. Only tunnels left head that direction."

When they got to the Transit Hub, there were a few splicers around, but none of security guards from before. One of the turrets had been destroyed and the newsstand had been burned down. Small flames still burned inside it. From the smell, paper and wood were not the only things in the fire. There was a leak in one of the windows, not a big one, but enough of one for a large pool of water. Near the steps going down to the Metro they found a body with a tool box. Inside the box was an Audio Diary.

_Henry Wiserman: Genetic Locks_

_February 24, 1959_

_Been trying to figure out how the genetic locks on the Sphere's worked. It just didn't make sense. How could Ryan have put genetic locks on every Sphere in the Metro so fast? And where is the equipment? There's nothing new that I can see. Then it hit me. It was already built into the Spheres. Ryan didn't add anything, he just turned it on. Now I know what I'm looking for, let's go see what I can find. _

He looked at the corpse. "Looks like he didn't get a chance to find anything."

*Or maybe he did and someone killed him for it.*

Something didn't add up. He started towards the Tunnel heading to the residential part of the city. "If Ryan's people weren't adding those locks to the Spheres, why shut down the stations?"

*Ryan wanted something with the stations themselves.* Elizabeth looked, sounded a little better now that she had something to think about.

"Something Ryan wanted to keep hidden."

*When we get back to Prosperity Way let me look around the Bathysphere Station. If Ryan's people changed anything, we might be able to find it.*

"Let's see how you feel when we get back. Been a bad day and you need some rest."

*And what…* She paused to look down at her hands. The IMAGE of her looked down at her hands. *I sometimes forget, I'm only a child.*

The rest of the walk was relatively quiet or at least no one attacked them. They did stumble into the remains of a recent fight. There were over a dozen dead, but no telling who was fighting or who won, if there had been a winner. He managed to pick up five rounds of Exploding Buck, three rounds of Armor Piercing Ammo and some Kerosene.

When they got to the plaza water fell from the roof in a steady stream.

"Not good."

*I don't think it's as bad as it looks. If this place was going to flood it probably would have done so already.

The department store was still open. Someone had repaired the turret or at least tried to. It still didn't look in very good shape to him. A man holding a shotgun and wearing a blood stained dress white shirt was sitting by the entrance. The man glared at him at got closer.

"Don't know you. Whatcha here for?" the man demanded.

*Well, that's polite.* She actually sounded rather insulted by the man's tone.

'Don't have to be a splicer to be paranoid.'

"Just here to get s few things friend." He kept a polite matter of fact tone. Being too friendly would make the man suspicions.

The man looked Booker up and down a moment. "Hurry up then. Going to be closing in twenty minutes. Won't be open again for a couple of days."

Best not to ask anything. Man's eyes didn't look right to him. Pupils were much too large. On some kind of drug?

*Before the war, stores in Rapture would be open seven days a week. Some were open twenty four hours a day.* They walked into the store and headed directly for the boy's clothes.

*Are you sure you'll be able to get the correct size?*

Anna had asked much the same question in the same tone of voice a couple of months ago. "Not the first time I've done this."

They quickly picked out four sets of cloths and two pairs of shoes. She wasn't found of the style of the clothes, but there wasn't of lot of choice. Least they looked better than what was in Columbia. They left the store and door slammed shut and was locked behind them.

"Get the idea that place won't be opening up again at all."

*If that's how they treat their...* She was interrupted by a heavy metal on metal sound from above them. Looking up they saw that the leak had stopped. A moment later they heard heavy footsteps from above. A Big Daddy must be up there and fixed the leak.

"Guess that's why Rapture hasn't flooded yet. None else seem to paying attention."

*We owe them our lives and there's nothing we can do to help them.*

"Other than end it for them, no."

*End? You mean kill them.*

"Mind you, not something I'm volunteering for."

*If a Big Daddy is killed, Ryan will just take someone else and make a new one.*

They were at the Tunnel entrance now. "Not much good to end one's pain and cause another to take their place." A no win situation.

On the way back they were attacked by a Spider Splicer. Bastard dropped on him from above. Shield took the worst of it. Three shotgun shells took care of her. When they arrived at Tantalus Place they found a man dressed in a doctor's clothes doing something with a dead body lying on a table.

As they closer they could see the man had a stethoscope on and was holding it to the dead man's chest.

*He's listening for a heartbeat?* Elizabeth ventured.

"Think it's a bit late for that."

As they got closer they could hear what the "doctor" was saying in a fake sounding German accent.

"Yes, yes. A goot strong heartbeat, vough I am vorried about your veight."

Then the man nodded as if he were listening to someone talking to him.

"Maybe you zould try zume Zlim Down. Many of my ozer patients svare by it."

They made sure to keep their distance and quickly left Tantalus Place behind. Getting through the Blue Ascot was getting harder all the time due to the smell. When he got to Fortune Avenue, he again got the feeling he was being watched. He looked around carefully.

*Things have been moved since the last time we were here. Someone has been here.* Elizabeth told him.

"Think they're still here."

She looked at him with a raiser eyebrow. *Why would anyone stay here?*

He continued walking. "Might be safer than some other places."

The dropped off the clothes and were soon back on Prosperity Way. As they passed the diner they could see a small crowd of people inside it all clustered about a few tables.

"Some kind of meeting maybe?"

*They're nervous about something. Is that Westheim?*

"And Mayhew's on the other side of 'em. There's the owner of the pharmacy."

*On the other side of the table. I think that's the manager of the King's Pawn.*

"Meeting of the Way's best and brightest."

*Or most powerful. Something more has happened.*

"Suppose we'll find out soon enough."

Walked by the casino, didn't seem to be many people in it. A bit further down the Way the newsstand was closed.

*That's odd, it shouldn't be closed this early.*

"Yeah." There was a paper nailed to the newsstand. They went up to read it.

_**By Order of Andrew Ryan**_

_All Newspapers, magazines and other forms of publications are to cease operations immediately. All businesses selling the Rapture Standard are to be closed. All copies of the Rapture Standard for February 25__th__ 1959 are to be turned over to Rapture Security or destroyed._

"Huh! Guess Ryan really didn't like what was in the paper today."

*I was wondering how long it would be before he closed down everything. People here should have known he was going to do it after they closed down Lost in Time Books.* Closing of the bookstore still made her angry.

"People didn't want to see it."

They started walking back to the room. *Have we gotten so cynical that we only see the worst that can happen?*

"We've seen the like of what's happening in Rapture before. Know where it's going to end."

*A replay of Columbia.*

"You said there was always a Lighthouse, a Man and a City. Figure they all end up the same way."

*I really don't see how that isn't being cynical.*

"Huh, guess it is. About places like this at least."

They were in the lobby now, wasn't anyone behind the desk. The lounge seemed to have a lot of people in it, but not many talking. Missy was in there, she had a bandage on her head and a black eye. Everyone was looking to her as she spoke. He was rather surprised she got out of the mess at the Welcome Center. He decided to take the stairs up.

*I suppose you have a rather unique viewpoint of all this.*

"Comstock's memories do tell me a few things. You should know a lot more since you were able to see Behind the Doors."

A female splicer with blond hair and a pronounced limp walked by them, but didn't notice Booker talking to Elizabeth. She was much too occupied with talking to herself and responding in a different voice.

*I didn't go and study the other cities.* She sounded a little put out.

"How much do you remember?"

It was several moments before she responded.

"One of the Lighthouses was in space, a huge place. The City was very far away, another world perhaps, created by a mad machine. I think Fink may have learned how to make the Handymen from there. Another Lighthouse was in the desert and the City in a massive cavern beneath it. They used magic...*

"Magic?"

*Yes, magic." She gave him a look that told him not to interrupt. *One Lighthouse was an observatory in the mountains and the City, it was on the Moon. Its creator was a scientist who wanted to make "perfect people". The last City I remember was in the tunnels under New York City. An insane cult leader who somehow mutated its members into living weapons.*

They were at the room now. No sign that anyone had gone into it while they had been gone. Going to have to remember to extend his stay for another week.

*I really didn't look at the other ones very much, just enough to know they were there.*

"Do you know what happened to the Cities you looked at?"

*War, destruction. Your right, the Cities don't seem to last very long.*

"Instead of trying to make the world a better place, people that make these places seem to try and make their own perfect worlds."

*Columbia was a "New Eden" and Rapture a "paradise". Humph.*

"People aren't perfect. When something goes wrong, people like Comstock won't accept it."

*And eventually it all comes crashing down.*

He walked back to the bedroom and went to get out the guitar. "Just wish you didn't have to go through it a second time. Think we've both had enough for today."

She sighed. *I certainly have.*

He sat down on the bed and started to play. He played a few slow songs, quiet, relaxing ones. Both needed it. Then he just let his fingers play, find a song on their own. Elizabeth must have been asleep for a little while before he realized it. Told her "Good Night" even if he didn't think she could hear him and was soon fast asleep.

-Elizabeth-

She was listening for something. Why? What? Things started to fade in, sound first. Gunfire? A scream. Booker grunted in pain. She could see some now. Looking down the sights of the heavy revolver. Barrel was a bright red, the Evil Eye Gear. Booker fired hitting a woman in the head.

The woman turned to face him, an insane grin on her face.

He fired again and the face vanished in a haze of red. She could see more now. They were in the west fork of Prosperity Way a little ways down from the Renaissance. There was smoke, fires, dead bodies all around.

'What happened?!'

Booker ejected the spent cartridges from the revolver, but didn't reload. He looked at it a moment then holstered it. He turned to the right to look at a man with a bloody bandage on his arm carrying a shotgun.

"You OK fella?" her father asked the man.

"Had worse. Got any more ammo?"

"Here." he told him and passed him 12 rounds of buckshot.

"Thanks, I owe ya."

"Just watch my back." he told the other man and got out the Tommy Gun. "I'm going to try and get to the Circus of Values."

"Why?" a woman's voice asked from behind him. He turned and she saw there were five people with weapons. Three of them showed signs of ADAM sickness, but they didn't look hostile. More scared than anything. There were bodies all over. The doors to the Renaissance smashed. One body propped a broken door open.

"Got one First Aid left and all of you are low on ammo and EVE, right?"

They looked uncomfortable. A man whose face looked like it was starting to melt spoke up. "What if we give you all out ammo? You fight better than all the rest of us put together."

"If something happened to me you wouldn't stand a chance."

They all looked rather unhappy, but didn't try to argue. "Shouldn't be too long."

Booker started heading down to the main street staying close to the wall. "Quite a mess isn't it Elizabeth?"

*It certainly is. What happened?*

He glanced backward. "You shouldn't..." *Sorry, didn't think you were awake yet.* The tone of his voice told her that he wished she was still asleep.

He was still talking to her when she wasn't awake. *Well I am, so What Happened?*

He continued along the wall. *Was at the diner for breakfast when there was an explosion from Marksman Gunsmiths, Ryan's people tried to raid it. I tried to get back to the room, but a bunch from Atlas who supported started calling out it was "the time". Was all it took. Everyone started shooting at everyone else. Had to fight my way back and then found those folks trying to keep their homes safe. Had two attacks from two different mobs so far.*

*You seem to have taken command.*

"Just trying to make it through this."

He was down to the corner by the Jet Postal. The smoke was thicker here and Booker coughed several times. They couldn't see that far, but they could make out a large number of bodies scattered around, dozens of them. Most of Prosperity Way's population must be dead now. But not all were dead yet and a few of them walked around as if they were dazed. Others mourned over the ones they had lost. A few had gathered into a pack and were looting the corpses. When they saw Booker, they took off running.

The Pharaoh's Fortune was on fire and there was a man standing in front, watching it burn.

"It's beautiful, Beautiful!" he yelled joyfully. And then he walked into the flames, laughing the entire time.

*I don't think this place can be saved.* She didn't have any great affection for Prosperity Way, but to see it destroy itself wasn't easy.

"Don't think many care anymore."

*Where will these people go when this is all over?*

"Maybe nowhere, just live in what's left."

As they moved further down the way they could see the Kings' Pawn better now. The front of the business looked like it had been torn open by an explosion. A man came out, his arms filled with all sorts of things. Was that a lamp?

"Looters. Just grabbing anything they can."

Someone in the Pawn shop started yelling, another voice roared back. Moments later, gun fire. 'Blind greed.'

Cho's and the Circus of Values in front of it wasn't much further now. As they got closer she knew something was wrong. She had seen it enough in Emporia, too much light, Cho's was burning. Would it be safe enough to get to the Circus of Values?

Down from the direction of Kleen's Pharmacy came five people, three men and two women.

One of the figures pointed at them. "Hey, there's someone over there!"

"Don't move!" another yelled.

"Damn." Her father muttered under his breath. "No use trying to hide now." If they tried to run these people would certainly attack. With luck Booker might be able to back them off without a fight.

The five people got a little closer. The woman in the center was Missy, but it looked like she had some white power on her skin and cloths. Several of the people around her had been in the Renaissance's lounge last night and all were armed. This didn't look good.

"BOSTON!" Missy screamed when she recognized Booker. "You bastard! Ryan knew we were coming! You sold us out!"

"I didn't…" her father started to say.

"She's dead because of YOU!" Missy's once beautiful face contorted with rage. Booker didn't wait for them to attack and used Bucking Bronco. He caught two of the splicers and opened fire the floating men. Missy hurled shards of ice at him as the others opened fire with a shotgun and pistol.

Booker's Shield took the hits, but it was low. He brought up Charge and immediately unleashed it on the woman with the shotgun. The woman staggered back and fired again, but the momentary invulnerability granted to him by the Vigor protected him. He hit her with the Air Grabber and she burst into flame.

Missy screamed at those around her to kill Booker.

Her father spun around and started backing up. Missy and the man with the pistol started to attack him as the female splicer thrashed around widely as she burned. Booker threw a Proximity Grenade on the floor under the two men still floating in the air. When the Plasmid's effects ended, they would fall onto it.

Booker was hit by ice shards and pistol fire. The burning splicer collected herself and turned to shoot. Her father continued backing up and switched to the shotgun and fired twice. As the burning corpse fell, her father was almost hit by a bolt of electricity from the splicer with the pistol. All but one of the ice shards Missy threw missed as well.

He fired twice at the splicer with the pistol as the Bucking Bronco wore off, followed by an explosion. The splicer with the pistol was hurt, but not down. Booker switched to his Machine Gun and finished him off with a long burst. Missy hurled more ice shards at him breaking his Shield. He turned towards her, but she vanished in a cloud of something that looked like ice crystals. She was some type of Houdini Splicer.

One of the splicers had survived the grenade and was getting up. Before Missy reappeared, Booker opened fire and finishing him. Now only Missy was left. Her father turned around looking for where Missy would reappear. There! She had tried to get behind him.

Booker fired, but wasn't able to do much damage before she vanished again. He looked around, but they didn't see… there! Missy appeared down the Way, running towards the Tunnels that led out to the rest of Rapture. She vanished into the smoke before Booker could fire.

*Think she'll be back?* She had a bad feeling she would.

"Wouldn't bet against it. Better get that ammo and get back to the Renaissance before something more happens."

End Chapter 54


	55. Chapter 55

1Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 55

-Elizabeth-

Around them were six dead bodies. The four people Booker had just killed and two others that must have been victims of the earlier fighting. Her father quickly got out the Research Camera and made use of it. Of the dead, only one wasn't a splicer. The smoke had cleared a little and they could see what this end of Prosperity Way had become.

Kleen's pharmacy had been ransacked, someone had even painted a "Death to Ryan" on it. There was no way of knowing what happened to the people who worked there. Tyler Metal Works had only minor damage and the shuttered bookstore hadn't been touched. She didn't need to see anything more to know the violence had been targeted.

They couldn't see the diner very well yet, but it was clear it had been heavily damaged and a large number of bodies were around it. Several of the dead wore Rapture Security uniforms. She wondered how many of the bodies they had passed belonged to those who attacked Booker as he tried to get back to Renaissance. She suspected a quite a few of them.

The fire inside of Cho's had died down some and her father went to the Circus of Values and started buy ammunition, First Aid Kits and EVE Hypo's. He surprised her by using one of the EVE hypos he bought.

"Almost out of EVE." he explained unhappily.

*Don't you have a spare bottle with you?*

"I did. Used it already." The fighting must have been even worse than she had thought.

He reloaded his shotgun with some of the ammunition he had just bought and started back. They hadn't gotten far before they heard the sound of gunfire from down on the other end of the Way. Booker stopped moving. It wasn't sporadic fire, but a battle.

He started moving slowing back down to the Renaissance, listening carefully.

Her father looked up. "It's all on street level, nothing from the upper level."

*You're saying we should go over them?*

"Might be able to avoid whoever it is. Had enough fights today I didn't want."

She wondered about the people back at the Renaissance. Were they fighting right now? The sound of the fighting died away to sporadic bursts of gunfire. Guess they would find out when they got back. Booker climbed the stairs to the next level. It was smoky up here, but not as bad as she thought it would be.

As in the street below there were bodies up here, but not nearly as many. As they walked they heard a muffled woman's scream which ended suddenly. It had come from ahead of them. She didn't think it was loud enough would have been heard at street level, but she couldn't be sure.

Booker made to step over a body wore a suit she recognized. *Booker, take a closer look at this body.*

He obliged without hesitation. "Damn." he muttered as he turned it over. It was Westheim. He had been shot several times and the blood was only minutes old. Her father stood up and quickly went to the next body a short distance further down. As they got closer they saw it was Alison Mayhew.

*Where's Lisa Mayhew?*

"Don't know." he told her softly.

They were close to the Prosperity Way Business Association offices now and there were two voice coming from inside. Two men were talking, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Booker moved up next to the door to hear better.

"Lester, this isn't right." One of the voices said.

"I don't care what you think Zak." came a second voice. It was higher pitched than the first, but hate filled. Younger, about her age, ah, former age. Early twenties. "If you don't want to do her after I'm done that's your fucking problem."

"She never did anything to you, Les." There was a pleading tone in the man's voice. Booker peeked around the corner. Two men wearing work clothes, both facing away from the door. They didn't seem to be splicers, but you never could tell. On the floor in front of them was Lisa Mayhew. She looked unconscious.

One of the men put his pistol on a nearby desk and took a few steps towards the girl on the floor. "That tight assed bitch turned me DOWN! No one does that to me." That one must be Lester. The other one, Zak took a step away from Lester and the girl.

Booker swiftly moved up Zak and struck him on the back of the head. He caught the man before he fell to the floor so not to warn Lester.

"Yeah, this whore is going to get what's coming to her. When I'm done she's going to be beggin'for me..."

Booker grabbed the man under the chin with his right hand and pulled up, exposing his neck. Then he used the Air Grabber to slice open the man's throat. Her father pushed the dying man away and quickly moved over to the girl.

She was more than a little surprised by Booker killing the man. Her father could have knocked him out, but choose not to. Booker knew what Lester was going to do to Lisa. Something told her she didn't want to know what it would have been.

There was already a bruise starting to form on Lisa's cheek, but she didn't see any blood. The girl's eyes flickered slightly.

*I think she's just stunned. Use a First Aid Kit to be sure.*

Her father used the Kit and a moment later Lisa's eye's started to opened. Booker quickly took a step back.

Lisa opened her eyes and recoiled in fear.

"It's ok." her father told her. "You're safe."

She looked around still afraid and slightly dazed. "Where.. where's my mother?"

"Take a deep breath. Rest a moment."

Lisa looked at Booker a moment. "Mr. Boston? What.." Her eyes went wide in panic. "MOTHER!" Lisa scrambled to her feet and bolted for the door.

Her father stepped in front of her and had to put out his hand to hold her back. "Get out of my way! My mother needs help!"

"She's dead."

*That's very tactful Mister DeWitt!* Booker's eye's flicked to the right before returning to Lisa.

Lisa's face turned pale. "No, she can't…Mr. Westheim said he would..."

"He's dead too. Think he might have been trying to protect your mother."

The girl went limp. "Can't be. What am I going to do? She can't be..."

Her father put a hand on Lisa's shoulder and guided her to a chair and sat her down. The girl was in shock and no telling how long before she came out of it.

Booker took a step back. *She's not taking this very well.* But that was to be expected. Her whole world just ended.

*Any idea on what to do with her?* her father asked.

They still had to drop off the supplies to the people at the Renaissance.

*We have to leave her here and come back later. She would be killed if we ran into trouble.*

Booker started looking about. *See if we can find some keys, least can lock the door.*

They quickly found a set of keys and as Booker tried them in the door Lisa started to cry. Softly at first then more and more loudly. Her father told the girl to stay in the office and they would be back shortly. She wasn't sure is Lisa heard or understood.

As Booker dragged Zak outside and locked the office, she noticed that there was less smoke than before. The fire inside Pharaoh's Fortune had died down, but that wouldn't explain it. Must be something with the air system that cleared smoke out of it quickly. If there wasn't, they might all be dead by now.

Booker moved down the walkway a distance then paused to look at the street below. There were two men in Rapture Security uniforms along with three people in normal clothes. One of them had shotgun, another a grenade launcher, one a Tommy Gun and the last had something cobbled together from different pieces of equipment. There was a nozzle was on one end and was that a wrench? It wasn't a gun, but the man held it like a weapon. The last one carried a fire axe had electricity flowing over his body, likely a Jockey of some sort.

As they watched a looter came out from inside the King's Pawn. The man saw the group and he dropped what he was carrying to raise his hands.

"Thieves are parasites!" the man with the strange weapon yelled and flame burst from the weapon, setting the man afire. The looter screamed and flailed around as he burned. After several seconds the woman with a shotgun ended the looter's pain with a single shot.

A flame thrower, that's what it was. The man with the flame thrower yelled at the woman who killed the looter. "Hey, I was watching that!"

*Ryan's started using irregulars and is mixing them in with the rest of his forces.*

*I'm surprised it took so long.*

*Can't stay here much longer. They're doing a sweep.*

*And seem to be killing everyone who they don't like.* She had a bad feeling about what was going on at the Renaissance. *We need to drop off the supplies and back for Lisa. Ryan's people shouldn't have done anything to them.*

_Cooperation with all requests from Rapture Security Constables is required for your safety. Failure to comply will make you subject to arrest and relocation to Apollo Square. Rapture Security. Protecting you and protecting Rapture. _

Booker nodded and continued back to Renaissance as quickly as he could. They were near the end of the walkway and slowed down. Down by the tunnels entrances was a group of twenty people. They seemed scared. Watching over the group were six people with weapons, including one with another flame thrower. One of the other guards had fire coming from his hands and seemed to be daring the prisoners to try something.

She recognized some of the people in the group. Charles, the front desk clerk, the female splicer with the limp they had seen last night and others from the hotel. None of those who had helped protect the Renaissance with Booker were there.

"To late." her father whispered.

*Why would Ryan's people attack the Renaissance?*

He shook his head in response. There was movement from up towards the hotel. Nine more people including a boy about eight years old were walking towards the group of prisoners. Behind them were two men with machine guns. One of the men guarding the prisoners started yelling.

"You are all guilty of supporting Atlas and his rebels! For that crime, you are being transferred to Apollo Square!"

One of the prisoners foolishly tried to plead with the guard. "But I didn't do anything! I never helped Atlas. Please, please let me go!"

One of the guards walked up and hit the man with the butt of his shotgun, knocking him down. Then he shoved the gun at the man's face. "We didn't say you could talk! If you don't fight for Andrew Ryan and Rapture, then you're helping Atlas and the rest of the parasites!"

"Not going to be able to help any of those folks." Her father said with anger in his voice. She knew that he wasn't going to pretend to be a hero, but he felt some responsibility for what happened to the people that he had fought with.

There were gunshots behind them. Ryan's people performing the sweep were busy.

*If you had been there when Ryan attacked, you would be dead.* She also knew that trying to rescue the people from the Renaissance would likely get him and the prisoners killed. There were too many of Ryan's people and they were too heavily armed. Even if Booker won, she had the feeling that Ryan's people might start killing prisoners.

"I know. Let's get Lisa and get out." Booker turned and started back towards the office.

*Going to take her to the office?*

"Only place for now."

*You can contact Mary and see if they have room at Athena's Glory for her.*

"Hope so."

He was getting out the keys to open the door when they heard heavy footsteps walking up the stairs leading to this level. There was no place to go, he would have to fight Ryan's people.

Booker had a different idea. He vaulted over the railing to the street below. He landed soundlessly and started running back towards Cho's.

*What are you doing?! We just can't leave her there!* She couldn't believe he was running away.

*Not planning to. Need to get behind them.* He didn't want to fight Ryan's people head on.

*But what if they find Lisa?*

*Should be checking the rooms. Take some time.*

Booker slowed down and started taking cover behind the pillars that supported the walkway. They got to the steps and saw several new corpses. He muttered "sloppy" before he started up. It took a moment to realize that he meant it was sloppy of Ryan's people no to leave someone to watch this end of the stairs. That made it much easier for someone to get behind them.

Just before they got to the top of the stairs they heard something breaking, a door? A man yelling to leave him alone then several pistol shots. Booker looked to see the man with the flame thrower standing in the door and firing into the room. But this time the weapon didn't shoot flames, but something that looked like water. No, something cold, liquid nitrogen maybe. Apparently the weapon could project several different chemical mixtures. The Jockey with the axe charged into the room and they could hear the sound of breaking ice.

Her father charged up a Devil's Kiss bomb. As the Jockey came back out onto the walkway, a fiery explosion consumed the five splicers. Unfortunately, only one of the splicers perished. Even before the flames faded Booker opened fire with the Tommy Gun. He didn't use controlled bursts, but just held the trigger down. In moments, the machine gun was empty and all the splicers were on the ground. Booker had taken some hits, but nothing had gotten through his Shield.

Booker started heading towards the office as he reloaded. He was only a few feet from Ryan's dead splicers when one of them jumped up yelling "Surprise!" It was the one with the chemical thrower. Booker only got off a short burst before being encased in ice.

The splicer was yelling something, but they couldn't make out what it was due of the ice. Because of his Shield there was a small gap between the ice and Booker's skin allowing him to move a little. But breaking out would take a few moments, moments they didn't have. The splicer picked up the axe dropped by the dead Jockey and started running towards them.

She couldn't see what Booker did, but the ice suddenly broke. It didn't break cleanly, but looked half melted and that's how she knew. He had built up a small Devil's Kiss charge around himself and melted the ice. Booker opened up with the machine gun and cut the splicer down before he got close enough to swing the axe.

He reloaded and ran to the office.

When he slammed open the door, Lisa bolted to her feet and tried to hide behind a desk.

"No, don't, don't! We need to leave, Now!"

She was still crying, but responded. Booker quickly explained what they were going to do. One thing he stressed was she wasn't to look at the dead. Before the left he made sure that the girl had her purse. She didn't say anything, just nodded her head.

*Booker, you might want to take that Chemical Thrower.*

*Chem..? Why.*

*You can freeze things with it for one. It might prove useful.* Comstock used Old Man Winter to freeze water as well an enemies down in Fontaine's. This weapon could do the same. They would certainly find other uses. *You don't have much ammo for your heavy revolver, do you.*

*Out.* he said flatly. It had been one of his more effective weapons.

As they passed the dead splicers, he put down the heavy Revolver with a small sound of regret and picked up the Chemical Thrower. Lisa looked a little puzzled and scared of it. She was probably going to be scared of most everything for some time.

"Not as heavy as I thought it was." he muttered as he slung it over his shoulder.

A short distance on, Booker glanced back and saw the girl staring to look at the floor and the dead splicers. Booker stepped in front of her.

"What did I say?"

Lisa responded softly, almost like a child who had been caught doing something naughty. "I shouldn't look at the dead."

"Yes, good reason for it. Understand?" She nodded in response.

*Do you think you can keep her from seeing her mother or Westheim.*

*No.* But what else could they do? Blindfold her? *She might need to see, too know for sure.*

There was yelling from down were Ryan's people held the people from the Renaissance. They must have figured out something was wrong. 'It took them long enough.' She was certain the Founders and the Vox would have reacted much more quickly.

"We need to go, ok?" he told her as gently as he could. The girl jerkily nodded once. The shock must be wearing off. Now they had to worry about the girl going into hysterics. She wondered a little why she hadn't fallen apart when Booker killed everyone at the ticket counter for the First Lady.

No, there was no mystery why. She was her father's daughter. She hoped that Lisa was strong enough.

When they got to Lisa's mother and Westheim she made a sound like a strangled sob and cry of pain. Fortunately, it wasn't very loud. Booker put an arm around her shoulders and guided her to the stairs and down them as she leaned against him and sobbed.

As they walked to the Securis door, a Little Sister and her guardian Big Daddy were hard at work harvesting the dead. The Rosie looked like he had taken some damage. Maybe some splicers tried to get at the Little Sister.

Why? Why didn't she figure out a way to stop this? Stop Rapture or at least stop the creation of Little Sisters? She knew she must have tried. And then failed. Or knew she would have failed, just as she knew that letting Atlas out of Fontaine's would eventually set the Little Sister's free. Constants couldn't be changed, but knowing that didn't make her feel any better. What if she had missed a variable? Was there something more she could have done?

By the time they got to the office Lisa had stopped sobbing, but she was holding on to Booker's arm with both hands. Normally she would have teased him about something like this, but wasn't in the mood and doubted he was either. She began to wonder if this was going to turn into problem. The girl was holding to Booker like he was a life preserver, afraid to let go.

She had some idea of what the girl might be feeling at the moment. She's seeing Booker as someone who rescued her, a hero. Not all that different from how she saw him after he broke her out of her Tower on Monument Island.

Lisa might start to get attached to Booker, too attached to him. That wasn't... She mentally shook herself.

'I'm acting like a child again.' Lisa needed help and that was all that was important.

Her father sat Lisa down in a chair in the office, but she didn't want to let go. When Booker moved to make the girl loosen her grip, she stopped him.

*Don't. She needs you here right now. Not like there is any place to go right now.*

*I need to keep looking...*

*Not. Today.*

He sighed. He knew she was right, but didn't like it. "Guess I'm stuck here for awhile." he muttered.

*Yes you are. You can't even get to Prosperity Way's Jet Postal to contact Mary at Athena's Glory.*

*Other Jet Postals.* he told her stubbornly.

*Be that as it may, I don't think you should be leaving her alone right now. For the next several hours at least.*

"By that time, Ryan's people will have left." Booker was looking over to the desk frequently. That must were he sees her, Elizabeth, at the moment.

*Why should they leave?*

"Goal wasn't to take over Prosperity Way, but clean it out."

*Should you be talking out loud? Lisa might think you're crazy talking to no one.*

"But your..." Booker shook his head as if to clear it. *Guess I shouldn't.*

*So, what did you mean by clean it out?*

*Ryan thinks if you're not for him, you're against 'im. Everybody is on one side or the other.*

*So when the fighting broke out on Prosperity Way, he didn't think he could trust anyone here.*

*Must'a pulled people off fighting Atlas.*

*That means they won't be able to stay very long.*

*Might already be gone.* He glanced down at Lisa. *Not that I can do much about it.*

-Booker-

It was just two hours before they felt they could leave Lisa alone. He decided to leave the Chemical Thrower behind. Wanted to test it a little before he took it into a fight. While they stayed with the girl, he and Elizabeth planned were to search for her next. Neptune's Bounty seemed like the best choice at the moment. Hephaestus was Ryan's stronghold and security would be tight. The residential section of the city was a war zone and Elizabeth didn't want him anywhere near Fort Frolic.

Lisa didn't say much, she stared at the wall most of the time, but she responded to questions and seemed to be in control of herself. She told them she had packed a suitcase in case she had to leave Prosperity Way with little warning, but hadn't been able to get back to it during the fighting.

It wasn't safe to leave her in the office so they moved her into the work area. The door was strong and the window, while damaged, was reinforced. She would be safe in there.

Before they left to go to the Way's Jet Postal he made sure to take Lisa's purse from her and look it over.

*Looking through a lady's purse Booker?* Normally she would have an amused expression on her face, but after what happened…

"Didn't think it would be a good idea to leave this with her. He opened the purse to show the .38 pistol that was inside. "Don't want her to do something impulsive." He took it out and looked at it a moment. It had been modified to inflict more damage and had some mechanism that allowed it to carry twelve rounds. Surprisingly the balance was good, but it probably made reloading a little slower.

*She had it upgraded at Marksman's.*

"You can tell just by looking?"

*The workmanship is distinctive and matches that of your autopistol.* He needed to stop be surprised by her doing that.

"If we run across an ammo machine we can get some ant-personnel rounds for her."

*When it's safe for her to have a gun.* Elizabeth added.

When they got back to Prosperity Way most of the fires had burned out. Headed for the Jet Postal first. They could look to see if any of his supplies were still in his room and do any researching after that. If things went smoothly they could go to Mayhew's place and pick up the suitcase for Lisa.

The slowly made their way down towards the Jet Postal, but didn't see any of Ryan's people. They did see three other people, splicers, but they didn't try attacking. They were just walking around, occasionally bending down to search a body or pause look at something. Scavengers come to pick over the Way's bones.

They sent the message to Mary then started researching as he headed towards the Renaissance. Mary's response would show up at the Pneumo not far from the office. It wasn't long before they found the bodies of the people he had fought with to protect the Renaissance.

Elizabeth was giving a close look at several of the corpses. *I think some of them were trying to surrender.* She reached down and closed the eyes on one of dead women. No, that wasn't right. She couldn't do that, could she? She wasn't here?

"Must have thought Ryan was going to save them. Instead…" *Ryan's people killed them.*

He looked down at the closest body. Mac, that was his name. He'd given the last of his shotgun ammo to the man. Mac was lying on his back, his shotgun at his feet. Didn't look like he had even gotten a shot off.

The lobby was in even worse shape than the last time he saw it. Bullet holes in the front desk, furniture knocked over, someone had set off a bomb in the lounge. A steady stream of water fell from the glass ceiling far above. There were nine dead bodies, only two more than before. The turrets had been destroyed earlier, blunting the first attack on the hotel. They had bought enough time for him to organize some sort of defense with the other residents.

For all the good it did in the end.

Elizabeth looked around sadly. Place wasn't home, but it was all they had for the moment. One of the elevators had crashed into the floor and the other didn't look that safe. 'Didn't want to use one anyway.'

Almost all the room doors were open. *Ryan people must have broken into every room to search.*

As they walked to the room they passed several more bodies. One of them caught his eye. He hadn't been shot, but there was bloody froth around his mouth and a broken bottle at his feet, it looked like the bottle of twenty five year old scotch he'd had in his room.

*It looks like he was poisoned. I guess that wasn't scotch in that bottle.*

"Serves him right for stealing other people's drinks."

One room they passed had been set on fire and still burned. The door to his own room had been broken in like the rest. Someone had done a quick search of the room and hadn't been neat about it. Things had been tossed about, a kitchen chairs had knocked over and his few possessions rifled through.

*What were they looking for?* Elizabeth asked from near the doorway.

"Anything that caught their fancy."

He quickly grabbed his clothes, the history book, guitar and tool box. He has taken to hiding the gems he didn't carry with him inside the guitar and Ryan's men hadn't found them, guess they hadn't even seen it under the bed. All but one the bottles of EVE had been smashed, but one was more than he had right now. Would have to get the two he had in the cache.

All the extra stuff he was carrying slowed him down and he was doubly glad for leaving the Chemical Thrower behind. To fight he would have to drop some of it, didn't look like there was much fight left in anybody here.

They left the Renaissance and headed to the Mayhew's apartment. It was on the second floor nearly opposite the Business Association offices. The apartment's door had been broken open just as all the others had. They were up next to the doorway before they heard noise from inside. They backed off a few feet and he quietly put down his burdens.

*Looters? Seems odd they would happen to be in this room and not any of the others we passed.*

*Good chance they're here for a reason.*

Voices now. Two of them. The first was a woman, heavy Chinese accent. "Why we look here? Money be in office."

The second voices was a man's. British. "Told you before love, searched the place top to bottom and there's nothing there."

*Thieves.*

"I say before, if rich bitch rich, were money!"

Before the man responded Booker stepped into the doorway and to the side so his back wouldn't be exposed. He had the shotgun out and ready to use. There were two people in what looked like the apartments living room. Chairs were knocked over, papers books and others things thrown on the floor. Both of looters in the room had their backs to the door.

"Soo, it HAS to be here!"

"Why we not find it, Samuel?"

*Not very good thieves.*

*More like scavengers.* He cleared his throat loudly. Surprisingly, neither reacted.

"I don't KNOW Soo, just keep looking. There's got to be a safe or something."

He worked the slid one the shotgun. At the distinctive sound both thieves froze. "Put your hands over your heads, please." No need to be rude. Yet.

Both thrust their hands over their heads.

"Now, turn around. Slowly." he told them.

Samuel squeaked "Oh, shit." when he saw Booker. Both of them were splicers, but looked to be only in the early stages of withdrawal.

Booker took a few steps away from the door and motioned with the shotgun. "Out."

The two would be thieves got out of the apartment as fast as they could. It would have been comical the way they tripped and ran into each other, but neither he nor Elizabeth were in the mood to laugh.

After the pair were gone, he moved what he had put down on the walkway into the room where it would be safer and closed the door. A broken door wouldn't keep anyone out, but it would slow them down a little. Then he started looking around the apartment for Lisa's room. Elizabeth decided to stay in the living room a moment and picked up one of the pictures that had been knocked off the wall.

First bedroom was Mrs. Mayhew's. It had been ransacked like the living room had. Even as it was, you could still tell it had a simple but elegant style.

*She had some style.* Elizabeth noted as she looked in from the doorway. She must have followed him.

"Not what we're looking for."

She moved aside to let him out of the room. That, that wasn't right. Elizabeth, she was.. wasn't here.

Only..In hisSz hEaD. Dizzy. He leaned against the wall and ripped his mask off.

*Booker?* Elizabeth looked at him with a worried expression. 'NO! not herenotherenothere.' He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hands. "Booker, what wrong? Say something!"

Breathing hard. Heart beating like a drum. "Think getting worse. Think you're here."

*Booker, concentrate! Remember I'm not here, I'm just a voice, like on the radio. You have to keep it together, you have to find your daughter!"

"Not, never going to forget that." Wasn't breathing so hard now. He dropped his hands and leaned his head back against the wall. The darkness made it easier.

*Good, now what's the matter.*

"I thought that you, Elizabeth was here, really here. You were doing things."

*Doing things?*

"Move out of the way of people. Closed a dead woman's eyes. Picked up things to look at."

*Things I would be doing if I was really there.*

"Yeah." He stood there a short time, collecting himself.

Something, Someone! Touched the side of face. His eye's snapped open, no one was there. The image of Elizabeth was standing about five feet down the corridor, looking worried. It had felt like fingers.

*Did something happen?*

"Sorry, guess the nerve damage is playing tricks on me."

*I think it might be best if you left here.*

He felt calmer now. "Yeah, let's get Lisa's suitcase. Nothing more for us here."

End Chapter 55


	56. Chapter 56

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 56

-Booker-

Lisa's suitcase was in her bedroom just as she had told them. The two looters had opened it up and gone through it, tossing things about as they did so. But was easy enough to re-pack.

*A gentleman doesn't go through a woman's underwear.* Elizabeth told him dryly.

"I'm not much of a gentleman."

*You got that right.* There was a ghost of amusement in her voice, but it quickly faded. *I think you should find a picture of Lisa and her mother. Might be the only thing she'll have.*

"Probably will be." he agreed. They ended up taking two. One was of Lisa as a baby along with her mother and man, Lisa's father maybe? And another picture of Lisa and her mother that had been on the girl's night stand. Looked fairly recent.

When they left the Mayhew apartment, Booker thought he looked like a bellhop in a fancy hotel. They noticed there were more people around now. More splicers had shown up looking to loot the damaged shops of the Way and its dead citizens. None bothered them though. Probably thought they, he, was a fellow looter. Didn't even react even when he had the research camera out and was taking pictures.

He really couldn't blame them much for the looting. Some of them looked like they hadn't eaten much as of late.

*Why are there more people here now? I now they aren't from Prosperity Way.*

"What happened here must have gotten out to the rumor mill. Nobody cared about the other places much, but the Way was fairly well off and lot a people passed through."

*Ryan couldn't have kept it quiet even if he wanted. He might have done this just as an example to others.*

"Wouldn't be a surprise if he did."

Shortly they were back at the office. Lisa was still inside and she hadn't done anything to harm herself. She looked worse with puffy red eyes, but seemed a little more responsive. Even said "thank you." when he handed her the suit case.

*It's going to be some time before she recovers.* Elizabeth looked at the girl with a heartfelt expression.

*It's not easy. Some don't ever really recover when they lose someone.*

She, the image, turned back to face him. *I guess I never really recovered after I killed you. I took out my anger and sorrow on Comstock, but never really...* *I didn't really face it until after I went to Paris.*

*Don't have to worry about it now.*

He set Lisa up in the area where they had planned to put Anna after they found her.

"You had this all planned out, didn't you." the girl as he prepared to leave again.

"Just thinking ahead."

"No, someone was to sleep in there and you sleep outside." She walked over to the clothes he had bought for Anna and picked a pair of pants up. "A child? You were going to bring a child down here?"

He liked it that she wasn't drowning in sorrow. He did NOT like it that she was digging around Anna's clothes. "Lot of things you don't know about me Miss Mayhew, best for you if it stays that way."

*Good old Booker tact.* Elizabeth told him.

The girl looked embarrassed. "Sorry, I didn't mean..."

"No, no harm done. I going to see if some people I know responded."

"Responded? To what?"

*You forgot to explain that you hoping to send her off to Mary and the rest of Clarice's people.* Elizabeth told him from where she was leaning against the wall.

"Know some people. Sent them a message asking if they have any room for you."

"But…"

"Not good for you to stay here." The expression on her face was one of hurt and a little fear. "I'm a splicer and already have problems keeping my head straight."

Lisa's expression showed mild confusion. "You seem normal, safe."

"Humph. Right now I'm seeing a young lady leaning against the wall over there" he pointed to where Elizabeth stood "and she talks to me."

Elizabeth made a disdainful sound and made a big show of crossing her arms and turning away from him.

Lisa glanced at Elizabeth, than looked back at Booker a little nervously. "There's no one there."

"I know. But not long before I stop remembering that. After that, don't know what's going to happen."

*I think you proved your point Booker. No need to scare the poor girl.*

"Those people you know…"

"They don't allow splicers. They just wanted to get out of Rapture."

"Leave? Leave Rapture?" Lisa just blinked as she tried to come to grips with the idea.

Elizabeth shook her head a little. *I guess she never even thought about leaving Rapture.*

*Been her home since she was a child.* "Rapture's done for."

"But when Mr. Ryan wins, there's going to be peace. He would rebuild Rapture, better than ever.

Wouldn't he?"

"Ryan only cares about one person, and that's Andrew Ryan."

"And you're saying Atlas is better?"

"Only real difference is how they spell their names." He told the girl.

*Now where have I heard that before?* Elizabeth said a little sadly.

*Not wrong am I?*

*No, you certainly are not.*

"But Mr. Ryan isn't at all like that! Like Atlas."

*Seems she bought into Ryan's propaganda.*

*Think I should tell her what would have, might have, happened to her sister?*

*Seems she needs a real shock before she's going to listen. But I wouldn't tell Lisa her sister could be still alive.*

"You mentioned your sister..." *Constance.* "Constance."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you know where Little Sisters come from?"

"Little Sisters? I don't... what are you talking about?"

"You think all the Little Sisters are orphans taken in by Ryan and his Little Wonders places?" She looked puzzled for a moment. The girl really didn't know. "Most of them were kidnapped from their parents."

"But Rapture Security..."

"Was helping Ryan do it." Now came the hardest part. "If you sister hadn't been in the accident at the school, you can bet that she would be a Little Sister now."

Lisa just stood there a moment then shook her head. "No, I don't believe..."

"When was the last time you saw a young girl that wasn't a Little Sister?"

"But kidnapping is against everything Mr. Ryan believes." The girl wanted to believe in Ryan, but she was starting to crack.

"Ryan only believes in what is good for Ryan. That's the real reason he went after Fontaine. Fontaine was getting rich, powerful. He was a threat, so Ryan got rid of him. Then Ryan took everything Fontaine had for himself."

He paused a moment to let her think before he continued.

"It didn't stop there. Ryan wanted more. More money, more power, more ADAM." He looked right into the girl's eyes. "How do you make ADAM?"

The girl flinched and turned a little away. "With Little Sisters."

*Booker, back off. She's been through enough today.* Elizabeth gave him an angry look. She was right, but he needed to make sure she didn't turn to Atlas.

"Don't think because he's against Ryan that Atlas is any better. Ryan turns the girls into Little Sisters, Atlas has his people go and kill them to get their ADAM."

She flinched at that. "Why, how do you know so much about Little Sisters?"

"My daughter was taken from me and turned into Little Sister. Nothing in this city is going to stop me from getting her back."

He must have let a little too much of his anger out as the girl stepped back from him.

*I hope your happy. She's scared of you now.*

*She should be.*

"Going to go check the Pneumo. Be back shortly."

He and Elizabeth left the office and headed for the Pneumo at a slow walk.

Elizabeth gave him a look. *You seem to be giving Lisa the same kind of "education" you did me.*

"Huh, hadn't really thought of it that way."

*And how do you think of it?*

"Trying to keep both of us alive."

*You don't want her doing anything foolish if you escort her to Athena's Glory.*

"Figure she'll do something foolish. Just hope it won't be too foolish now."

*Like hitting you over the head and trying to run away?*

"Well, didn't think she's going to try doing that. But she might have gone to Ryan's people and gotten herself killed."

They were at the Pneumo now. To his surprise there was a letter in it addressed to "Mr. Boston"

"Really didn't think she would send something back so fast."

*Then coming out here was just an excuse.*

"She needs a few minutes alone."

*And you don't want her getting dependent on you.*

"There's that."

*Let's see what Mary has to say.*

He opened the envelope and opened the piece of paper inside. Elizabeth was standing beside him, so he tipped it so it would be easier for her...no, just in his head. He blinked to clear his head a little.

_Robert, _

_Good to hear from you. We got your gift and it's been put to good use. Thank You. We do have some room for Miss Mayhew, but make sure she understands she will need to work to stay here. I hope she has some skills we could use. When you come, don't use Central Square. Fighting has been bad up there and one of the tram tunnel entrances collapsed. The tunnel from the south of Athena's Glory is still safe as far as we know. It's quietest in the early morning around 6a.m. That would be the best time for you to bring Miss Mayhew up. Don't forget to call ahead when you get there._

_See you soon, _

_Mary_

*It's good they can take in Lisa, but don't you think Mary wanting to talk to you is a little ominous?*

"Might want some advice on fighting or something."

*Well, you are an expert on that.* She paused a moment. *Guess I'm not going to be awake when you take her.*

"Think I can manage."

*I just want to make sure she's safe I suppose.*

"Reminds you a little of somebody maybe?"

*Really Booker, who would she remind me of.* She had one eyebrow raised and a slightly annoyed expression. *You think she's like I was when I first got out of my Tower.*

"You said it, not me." he told her with a small smile.

*Humph!* She turned away and folded her arms to adopted her "I'm mad at you pose" that he first saw at the Finkton Docks. Anna used the exact same pose from time to time. Wouldn't last long. In fact it should end right about... now.

Her shoulders slumped slightly and she turned back towards him. *I guess she's a LITTLE like how I was. I hope she doesn't become like I am.*

"Anna's happy and she wants to help people."

*And you think she is still going to be that way after being a Little Sister?*

"Didn't you still want to help Sally?"

*That was to repay a debt.*

"Did more than pay a debt to Sally. You wanted to save as many Little Sisters as you could. Just been about Sally, you could've found a way to help her that didn't get you killed.*

*You think Anna, I, would still want to help?*

"I think she would have been willing to become a Little Sister if she thought it would save others."

*Even knowing what would happen to her?*

"You knew what was going to happen and you still went through with it. And bet you would do the same again."

She looked down a little before responding. *Yes, yes, I would.*

"Now that's settled, let's see about this Chemical Thrower."

The Thrower had a short of a range as he expected. If he ever ran out of EVE, the ability to set things on fire could be handy. What he thought was most interesting was that he could freeze things like the Winter Blast Plasmid. That was something new and might enable to avoid some killing. Elizabeth told him that there might be a way to increase the range. They would have to take it apart and look at it to know for sure.

They couldn't fire it much other than a few test shots though. The splicer he had taken it from had been low on ammo and his tests used up the last of the napalm. Just as they started to head back to the office where Lisa was and Elizabeth said she was getting sleepy. As she drifted off for her afternoon nap she started humming a song. Couldn't hear it all that well, but he didn't recognize it.

When he got back to the office Lisa was looking at some of the equipment and tools in the shop area. He thought more to keep herself distracted than for any real interest in them. When he walked in she looked up and took a small step back. 'Guess I did frighten her a bit much before.'

"The people I know said they had room for you."

There was a hint of smile on the girls face before it quickly vanished. "So when do we leave?"

"Not until early tomorrow morning."

"Oh. So what are you going to do until then."

Going to take this Chemical Thrower apart and see if anything can be done with it."

"Take it apart? You know how?"

"Shouldn't be hard. Just a few bolts."

He got his tool kit and five minutes later he had the Chemical Thrower taken apart. Lisa watched what he was doing, but made sure to keep a little distance from him. He probably should have waited for Elizabeth to wake up, but knew Lisa had a little time to think it would be best to keep her from thinking too much. The Chemical Thrower would serve as a useful distraction.

Turned out the Chemical Thrower was just a mixer and a bunch of tubes. The "fuel" was just compressed gas. He could almost have made this back in 1912. Come to think of it, one of the other Bookers read that Germany was working on something that shot flames. Too many bends in the piping for his taste, pipe diameter looked a bit small too. They should have asked a plumber to help out with this.

He found some paper and started to sketch out some changes that would improve things. He looked around the work area and spotted most of what he would need. If the hardware store up at Bounty Square was still open, they should be able to get the few parts that weren't here. Maybe they could find a Power to the People machine though and it might save him the trouble.

Lisa asked a few question about what he was doing. He took a little time and explained. The questions were fairly good ones and his opinion of how smart and educated she was went up somewhat.

Also it was a good way to stall for time until Elizabeth woke up.

-Elizabeth-

She woke from her nap slowly. No one trying to wake her up, no gunfire and no bad dreams. Somehow it didn't seem fair to her. That Little Sister was dead and not even a nightmare to mark the girl's passing.

Booker was drawing something, looked like a pipe semantic. The Chemical Thrower was partially disassembled on a nearby workbench. Lisa was looking it over as she was trying to figure it out. Her eyes were still red. It was going to be a long road for the girl.

All that could wait. She wanted to think a little. She closed her eyes and told herself to stop listening. She didn't like all this darkness. That was easy enough to fix. She created a room in her mind, nothing specific, just someplace to think. She opened her eyes to see what she had created.

It looked like a hotel room. Two beds, three chairs with a table. Things looked well-made and they style seemed like it was from about the same time period as Columbia. Hm. She would have expected something from Rapture. There were several large windows covered by curtains. She pulled aside one and looked out across a city at night. She couldn't see enough to figure out what city it was. One thing was certain thought, it wasn't Columbia or Rapture.

Odd.

Looking down at herself she saw that she was dressed in the same clothes she had died in. They were clean though, no dirt or blood. She looked at her right hand and all five fingers were there, like it had always been that way. She must have that image of herself in her mind now.

She looked around again, but she couldn't remember ever being in a room like this. There was a small desk with some stationary. Birkmire Hotel, New York, New York.

That's what this was then, New York City. But she hadn't been to New York. No, that wasn't right. *Elizabeth* hadn't been to New York, but Anna grew up there. This must be something from Anna's memories then.

"Huh, I wonder why Booker and Anna were staying in a hotel?"

A voice came from behind her. "Daddy was talking with a friend."

She spun around to find a child sitting in one of the chairs. She wore an old style blue and white dress, her dark brown hair tied in a ponytail and she had big blue eyes. There was a slight smile on her face as she looked back at Elizabeth.

Anna.

She just stared at the girl for what seemed like an eternity before the shock wore off.

"Ah, hello. You're Anna, right?" Of COURSE she's Anna! "My name's Elizabeth." This was strange even for her.

Anna smiled. "I know, you're Daddy's friend."

She smiled back. She couldn't let this opportunity escape. "Do you know where you are Anna?"

"Bored. Waiting for Daddy to find me."

"Yes, your father is looking very hard. If you tell me where you are, he can come and get you."

Anna looked down, unhappily. "Don't know. Hard to see, the lights are wrong. Too many, too bright."

"Can you see any signs? Or some landmark?" 'Please, please tell me something!'

"Signs funny, can't read them. Letters all squiggly"

Damn it all! The conditioning they gave her to turn her into a Little Sister is affecting how she sees things. "Can you describe anything around you? The people? Something, anything to tell Booker, your father?"

"Lots of stairs. Bad people with metal hands, always on the walls. Funny faces. Bad people, all of them. The Cold Man is the worst. Comes in a puff of cold smoke. Really bad man. Always arguing with the Loud Man, The other girls are scared of him. He tried to hurt Bethany, but she's ok now."

Cold smoke? A Frozen Houdini like Missy?

"Tele, tele-Port. That's what he does." She seemed happy to have remembered the word.

"Do you remember the Cold Man's name? Or the Loud Man's." Anything would help!

"No, just the names we call them. Hard to remember some things." She looked down a moment. "But I remember. There's naught that they can do to make me forget." The last came out with the same tone she used to defy Comstock with. Almost the same words.

Booker was right whatever they had done to control the Little Sisters hadn't worked on Anna very well.

Anna looked at her with a questioning expression. "Why are you sad Elizabeth?"

"What? Sad? Why do you think I'm sad?"

"Just know it." she told her with a slightly concerned expression. Of course she would know. She, Elizabeth, was just a part of Anna that remembered, not a different person. So hard to remember that sometimes.

'Anna made this place, not me. She made this place for us to talk.'

"You think you did something bad?" Anna wondered.

"Yes, I did. I tried to fix it, but what I did wasn't a good thing." She took the chair next to Anna. "Innocent people have been hurt, killed."

"Did you want them to be hurt?"

"No! No I didn't. But, I knew it would happen. I set a bad man free to fight another bad man, it started a war."

"You started a war?" Anna didn't quite seem to believe her.

"When I set Atlas free, he set off the bomb that started it all."

Anna thought a moment. "Did you make Atlas set off the bomb?"

"No. It was his idea. But I knew he would do it when I freed him."

"Atlas didn't have to set off the bomb did he?"

"No."

"It's his fault then, not yours."

"It's… not that simple. By helping Atlas escape, I'm responsible for what he did. I knew what would happen and I still let him out. The war started because of what I did." 'That Little Sister died because of what I did.'

Anna's expression became one of intense concentration. As she started thinking, she held the pinky of right hand in her left hand and acted as if she were twirling something around it. She looked up at Elizabeth after a short time.

"What would have happened if you hadn't let him out?"

"I don't know."

"You see the maybes?"

How much had Booker told her? Or did she remember something? "I used to. I could see all the doors and what was behind the doors, but not anymore."

"Why can't you see them anymore?"

"I gave them up to come back to Rapture and fix what I did."

"You saw what would happen if you didn't let the Atlas man out before you can back?"

"I suppose I did, but I can't remember now. Some of my memories are gone."

"But what would have happened?"

"I don't..." she stopped. She never had really thought about what would have happened. She had tried to remember, tried too hard maybe. She hadn't tried to figure out what would have happened based on what she knew. Booker had told her what he thought would happen, but it wasn't the same.

"I need to think a minute." she told Anna as she stood up to walk a little. The girl gave her a small smile.

So, if she hadn't broken Atlas out, Ryan Security would have killed him. His rebellion would have fallen apart. Or would it have? There were a lot of very unhappy people in Rapture, someone else would have picked up after Atlas's death. Sooner or later there would have been a war.

Forget the war. Ryan would likely win it. What else would have happened? Suchong would still be alive and would have continued his work and he had a Lutece Device. Splicers are addicts and they needed more and more ADAM. Almost all the girls in Rapture had already been turned into Little Sisters before the war, so there was no way to increase production. Sooner or later there wouldn't have been enough ADAM to go around. Probably sooner.

That would have left two options, cure ADAM sickness or create more Little Sisters. Suchong buried Cilia Canfield's research into a cure and Ryan wasn't ever going to stop selling ADAM. New Little Sisters would be needed and the only way to get them would be to kidnap them, either from the surface or using the Lutece Device.

If she hadn't acted, set Atlas free, hundreds or thousands of little girls would have been stolen to become Little Sisters. And how long Rapture would have stayed hidden? She shuddered at the thought of ADAM technology escaping Rapture. It would have poisoned the whole world.

But it didn't change anything. Innocent people and Little Sisters still died, were dying and will die. She was responsible for it.

She looked back to Anna. "If I hadn't let Atlas out, I think it would have been worse. That doesn't absolve me of what I did though."

Anna got out of the chair. "You did the best you could?"

"I hope I did." She turned away a little and closed her eyes. Hoping, praying she had done all she could.

When she turned back there was another Elizabeth standing behind Anna. The other Elizabeth was dressed in the same as she was, but her clothes were torn and soaked in blood. There was a thimble on her finger but the bird broach wasn't on her neck. Her expression was hard, but softened slightly as she spoke.

"All that could be done by Elizabeth, has been done."

Then another Elizabeth stepped into view from the right. She had short hair, bruises on face and wore Lady Comstock's blue dress. Her face showed sadness and determination.

"The days of those who make a profit from children are numbered."

Elizabeth blinked and another Elizabeth came from the left. This one had on a white blouse, blue skirt and her hair was tied in a ponytail. How she looked when Booker broke her out of her Tower. This Elizabeth smiled a little, but it was a sad smile.

"But there is more to be done and more suffering to be endured."

Before she could ask anything, the other Elizabeths vanished. Anna stood there as if nothing had happened. Had she even known the others Elizabeths had been here?

She went to ask and a heavy pounding shook the room. Anna looked around a moment, an irritated pout on her face.

"Anna, what was that?"

Her shoulders slumped. "It's Mr. Bubbles. I have to go now."

"Wait! I need to..."

"Tell Daddy I love him for me." She told her cheerfully, then she faded away and the room faded with her. Soon she was surrounded by nothing. She didn't know how long she stayed there thinking about what Anna and the other Elizabeths had said.

'No, not what Anna said or the other Elizabeths, what *I* said.'

That's what she was really doing, she talking to herself. She wondered what a psychologist would think of it all.

'Probably lock me up for the rest of my life.'

She knew now though. Freeing Atlas had been the only thing she could do. Anything else she could have done would have had led to more suffering than this war. And doing nothing would have been worst of all. It didn't make all the death and destruction right, just better than the alternatives. But her worry that she hadn't done all she could do had been laid to rest.

Dad had told her and she hadn't been able to make herself believe it.

One thing she couldn't figure out was what more had to be done? She was a child, a Little Sister. There wasn't much she could do. Her father? No. She must have been talking about Jack. He would be the one to finally end this nightmare. She would have known if Booker played a part, if Anna, she played a part.

She didn't know how long she thought it all over, no way to tell time here. Too much time shouldn't have passed though. She opened her eyes and started to listen again.

"You should be ok in there." Booker said as pointed to the small office that was to be Anna's bedroom "Maybe not as good as a bed, but the sleeping bag should be enough." he turned back to face Lisa.

Lisa seemed a little unsure. She didn't look scared of Booker anymore at least. "You can lock the door if you want. Now get some rest, be moving out at 4AM."

Booker was planning to get up early to get Athena's Glory. How much time had passed?

Lisa went into the "bedroom" while Booker laid out his sleeping bag.

*Hello Booker. What time is it?*

He started slightly when she spoke then turned to look over to one side. *Nearly nine. I was getting worried. Is something...*

*No, nothing's wrong. I, I talked to Anna.*

"What? Is.." *is she ok? Where is she?*

*She's fine. But she doesn't know where she is.*

*Damn.* She imagined his fists clenching in frustration. After that he just stood for a minute. *Is she scared, worried? Does she know what's happening?*

*She's not at all worried about if you're going to find her or not. She's just… bored.*

*Does she understand what...*

*She understands some of it. Whatever they tried to do didn't work very well.*

*She knows, she'll remember.* He sounded worried.

*Booker, as disgusting as it is, it's not as bad as being locked in the Tower or Comstock House. She's going to be ok. It may take some time, but she'll be ok. She's a DeWitt.*

He sighed. "Yeah, she is." he admitted. *How long were you able to talk to her?*

*Not long, a Big Daddy interrupted.*

*Do you think you'll be able to talk to her again?*

*I might, but she was the one who wanted to talk to me. I can't "call her". She has to do it.*

*Why did she want to talk?*

*The Little Sister's death yesterday. I guess my feelings were affecting her.*

*You sound a little better now.*

*In a way I guess. I know I did the best I could now and made the best choice. It's still my fault the Little Sister, Mrs. Mayhew and so many others here are dead. But if I hadn't acted, things would have been worse.*

"Sometimes that's all that can be done." *Did Anna have ANY idea where she was?*

*Not much. The only things she could tell me were that there were a lot of noise, stairs and bright lights. She described a large number of Spider Splicers and a Frozen Houdini like Missy being there. Not much of a help.*

*Maybe not. If we find a place without Spider Splicers, know Anna isn't there. And we know she's in a place with a lot of noise and lights.*

*That rules out the residential areas of the city.*

They spent a few minutes figuring out what part of the city Anna's description fit best and came to the conclusion that it might be the industrial section of the city, but it was hard to be sure.

Booker took off his boots, lay down and prepared to get some sleep.

*Anna wanted me to tell you something.*

"Oh?"

*She told me to tell you she loved you.*

*I love you too.*

End Chapter 56


	57. Chapter 57

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 57

-Elizabeth-

She woke slowly. It was quiet or least no one was shooting. As her vision faded in Booker was crouched down, the autopistol in his hand. They were behind a large planter. It sounded like people were talking nearby. He glanced back. Lisa was behind him on her hands and knees with her modified .38 clutched her hand, her eyes wide with fear. There was some blood on her jacket and a bandage on her left arm, but she didn't seem to be in pain.

Booker's eyes flicked to small support column. Just the sort of place she would have taken cover.

"Alright, breaks over." a man's voice called out. A few voices muttered complaints and someone giggled insanely for several moments. Then the clatter of people moving and the distinct sounds of weapons being readied. One man started singing "Rise Rapture Rise" until someone else yelled at him to knock it off. The group moved off and after several minutes Booker cautiously stood up.

They were in the lobby of an apartment building. The usual Rapture art deco style with a large amount of damage and five dead bodies. One body was behind a bullet riddled couch. Some fool must have tried to take cover behind it and found out the hard way that furniture doesn't stop bullets. A small geyser of water shot up from a damaged pipe in the floor. The clock on the wall said it was 8:28.

She could see some of the upper floors. Doors had been broken open and the damage from the fighting was just as bad as it was in the lobby.

He looked to Lisa who was still on the floor. "Ok, it's clear." he told her. The girl carefully stood up, looking ready to shoot anything that threatened her. She didn't have her suitcase with her. Did she loose it?

She wondered what happened. Booker and Lisa should have been able to get to Athena's Glory a long time ago.

Booker started for a set of doors to his right, the opposite direction than the people she had heard earlier had gone. A damaged sign near the door thanked them for visiting Oyster Bay Apartments.

Seemed safe enough for her to be able to talk and not be a distraction. *Booker, I'm awake. What happened?*

He glanced to the right then jerked his head back. *Lota problems. One of the tunnels we wanted to use had Ryan's people on one end and Atlas's at the other. Another was filling with water. Been attacked by splicers three times. Lost more time stayin' out of the way of others. Seems splicers are seeing un-spliced as easy prey.*

*How's Lisa doing?*

*Scared, not panicking though. Not a bad shot, but she hasn't had to kill anyone one yet.* She knew that it was because Booker was making sure to do it for her.

*You had to leave her clothes behind?*

*Figured it was better to send them ahead by Pneumo then drag them all over Rapture.*

*Is there any good news?*

*Did get some replacement ammo and grenades. Also got some anti-personnel ammo for Lisa.*

*That should help her protect herself.*

They went out the doors and into a wide corridor with a short flight of steps at the other end going up and taking a turn to the right.

*She needs it. If she been alone, wouldn't last an hour. I also "suggested" that she carry a few First Aid Kits with her.*

Soon they were in the Deep Blue Sea Arcade. Rows of machines for gambling, entertainment and fortune telling. For some reason it reminded her a little of the Arcade at Battleship Bay, though it didn't look much like it. The room was long and nearly three stories tall with a glass roof. Hanging from the roof were green and red banners with Art, Education, Independence and Science written on them in gold letters. Midway down on both sides where large archways that presumable led to other rooms in the arcade. On the Far end were two sets of doors with a sign that said "Exit" over one of them.

As they walked to the exit she noticed that this area was relatively intact compared to the lobby of the Oyster Bay Apartments. There were some bullet holes, a destroyed Security Camera and a few of the cabinets were knocked over, but little more. There weren't even any dead bodies, which in Rapture these days was unusual.

*How far from Athena's Glary are we?*

"Figure about a hundred yards."

*Booker, you said that out loud.* she admonished him.

Lisa spoke up from behind. "A hundred yards to what?"

"Sorry, thinking out loud. Should be about a hundred yards to Athena's Glory."

"So we're almost there?" Lisa had a hopeful tone in her voice. The girl had a lot to learn.

"Can still have problems, don't let your guard down."

"When will we be safe?"

*When you're on dry land.* She said told the girl even though she knew Lisa couldn't hear her.

"No safe place in Rapture, only places less likely to get killed."

Her father climbed over one of those horrid "Epstein the Swami" machines that had been knocked over. She was sure he favored his left leg when he did it. He then turned to help Lisa over.

*What is the matter with your leg Booker?*

*Was going to tell you 'bout it tonight.*

*You can tell me now.* she told him in a more than slightly irritated tone.

*Don't think it's serious and got bigger things to worry about right now.*

*I will make SURE to remind you tonight.* He shouldn't keep thing like that from her. But he probably didn't tell her because he didn't want to her worry.

*Am sure you will.* he said in an amused tone.

*Humph.* She was being a little grumpy. Well maybe more than a little. There was this vague feeling that she wanted to eat. Guess Anna hadn't had breakfast yet.

There was an Audio Diary on a pinball machine which he picked up as he walked past. He didn't pause to listen to it though.

"You steal things easily." Lisa told him.

"Hhm, guess so. Long as none else needs it, not going to worry."

"And how do you know if someone needs it or not?"

"If someone needed it, wouldn't be laying around." He glanced back at the girl who had her mouth slightly open as she tried to come up with a reply.

"The rules you knew, grew up with, don't apply anymore. It's what you have to do to survive now."

Booker seems to have reopened his school. She hoped that Lisa was smart enough to listen. As they got closer to the exit, they saw there were a Gather's Garden, a Circus of Values and a Gene Bank.

"And survival means robbing and killing innocent people?"

"Don't plan on hurting anyone that isn't tryin' to hurt me or mine. Neither should you."

"But why steal an Audio Diary?"

"Information can be more important than a gun sometimes. And whoever left this behind doesn't care about it, if they're still alive. So not hurting anyone."

They were at the door now. "Stay here." he told the girl and went through one of the Exit doors. And quickly retreated back before the Security Camera covering the area outside saw them.

"Problem." He told the girl.

Booker could get past the Security Camera without any problem if he used the Bypass Plasmid on it. Lisa however would still be detected. And given there were at least three bodies close by the door, it seemed that the camera didn't allow many people to pass by without sounding the alarm. Now she knew why there wasn't much damage in the Arcade.

*Think of anything?*

*You can't hack it because it's too far off the floor. Possession would only make it friendly to you, it would still raise and alarm if it saw Lisa. The only other option is destroying it.*

*Not a good way to keep from being noticed. Better look for another way around. If there isn't, can always come back.*

He turned to Lisa. "Don't want to risk you being seen that Security Camera. Going to see if there's a way around it."

"What could a camera do to us?"

Booker motioned to one of the corpses near the still open door. "She probably thought the same. Cameras can call in Security Bots. Best to avoid a problems like that."

"Where else can we go?"

"Saw some doors back in the side gallery. Might be another way out."

*You might want to research that camera while we have a chance.*

As soon as her father finished with the research they headed back to the Arcade. The door on the right turned out to be several offices, a money counting room and employee area. A quick glance showed nothing of interest. The door left was a large maintenance area. While there were several vending machines here, there were many other tools and pieces of equipment. They had done a lot more than work on the arcade machines here. At the far end was a heavy door.

_Try the New and Improved Winter Blast Upgrade today! Keep your cool and keep your enemies on ice with the Winter Blast by Ryan Industries! Evolve Today!_

Booker pulled down the door control and it promptly short circuited hitting him an electric shock that fuzzed out her vision and hearing for a moment. As her vision cleared, Booker hit the door control to activate the Electric Eel Gear and the door opened. Beyond was a short corridor with a stairway going up to the floor above. To the left was "Jon Mitchel's Electronics". He tried the door, but it was locked and would need a key to open.

They looked into Mitchel's through the reinforced glass windows. *Booker, on the table to the right.* There were some of those odd looking darts they had found earlier next to a small piece of equipment with a pistol grip and an antenna on it.

"Why did we stop?" Lisa asked.

"Looking for something that might be of use."

The girl looked in the window. "Oh, that's a Hacking Tool."

*She knows what that is?* Booker glanced over to the empty air to his right as she spoke.

"How do you know what it is?"

"I was taking courses in electronics before the war started. The teacher brought one into class for a demonstration. His brother was one of the people developing it." It must not have been picked up in the trade magazines before the war starter. "With that, hacking that camera won't be hard at all."

*I guess there's something to be said for taking classes.* She admitted reluctantly.

"Don't suppose you know how to pick locks."

Lisa straightened up and looked at Booker. "No, why would I know how to do that?"

*Yeah, Booker. Why would you expect a girl to know something like that?*

"Just thought to ask. Never know what unexpected talents somebody might have." he told both of them in an slightly amused tone. "Now just have to find a way to get in there."

All of them looked into the work area for another way in.

"Stairs in back. Might be a way in above."

"Or maybe a way out of here." Lisa added.

They left Mitchel's and walked to the stairs leading up. The upper floor had large windows looking out over the city. They could see Athena's Glory from here and a tunnel that would take them to the next building and closer to their goal. It was just ahead and to the left.

Opposite the windows there was a shutdown restaurant named the Oceanview. As they walked past Booker tried the door and found it locked. When it had been open the restaurant certainly did have a good view. No way to get into the electronics shop though. At the far end the corridor turned to the left and there was a sign said "To Odysseus Manor".

"Guess we won't need that Remote Hack Tool after all." Booker observed as they started walking.

About halfway down, he slowed his pace a little, looking around more carefully. Booker didn't like something. They turned the corner to find the Securis Door that led to the tunnel encased in a huge block of ice. It was a trap.

Booker swung around to face back down the corridor and the Oceanview.

"Lisa, get behind me right now." Booker said softly but commanding voice. As he did so, he started reloading the shotgun with Exploding Buck.

A moment later two figures came out of the Oceanview. The first was a hulking man with blue skin and large ice crystals poking holes in his clothes. Ice made up his hair and beard. It was a Frosty like those she had seen in Fontaine's, but even more mutated. The other was another Splicer with a metal club and a butterfly mask, but her clothes and flesh were coated with ice. Not a Thugish Splicer, some kind of EVE Addict probably.

The Frosty yelled in heavy raspy voice. "You warmbloods are weak! Only those who accept the cold will survive!"

The other didn't bother saying anything and hurled shards of ice which hit Booker. He hadn't even tried to dodge. Then she realized that Lisa was behind Booker. A bolt of electricity from the Air Grabber hit the Frosty shocking him. It was quickly followed by a grenade.

As the Frosty was engulfed by the explosion, the icy EVE Addict hurled more ice shards and charged at them. Booker fired the shotgun twice and the splicer caught on fire, but even as she screamed she didn't slow down her charge.

Before Booker could fire again Lisa screamed "Look out!" and an instant later he was hit from behind by something that nearly broke his Shield. Booker fired again at the burning splicer as he shifted position to get a look at what was behind him.

Lisa fired her pistol three times and out of the corner of his eye they saw a man vanish in a cloud of ice crystals. A Frozen Houdini Splicer. The burning Addict started to thrash around and Booker took the opportunity to switch to the Chemical Thrower and poured a stream of liquid fire into her.

A moment later the EVE Addict collapsed and Booker had to dodge the ice balls thrown by the Frosty. She hoped that Lisa had enough sense to get out of the way. The Houdini appeared further down the corridor, well behind the Frosty. Booker concentrated on the Frosty for the moment. He brought up Charge, but didn't allow it to build. He slammed into the Frosty who caught fire. The Firebug Gear at work.

Booker's hit the Frosty with the Air Grabber again and the burning splicer went flying down the corridor. Booker drew his pistol and used the telescopic site on it to focus on the Frosty's head as he tried to stand. Two shots was all that was needed.

The Houdini shot more ice shards at Booker, but he was able to avoid most of them and his Shield took the rest. Booker only got a single shot off before the splicer vanished again. Her father quickly put his back to a wall and looked around as quickly as he could for the splicer to reappear.

Only a few feet behind Lisa a white cloud formed. "Get down!" Booker yelled as he brought the pistol around. Lisa stood for a moment her eyes wide with fear as Booker's gun swung in her direction. Then realized she should duck.

Using the autopistol's scope again, Booker fired twice more and it was over.

As he reloaded his weapons he walked over to Lisa who after several moments started to stand back up. Booker was fighting a little differently than he had before. Would have to ask him about it.

"You ok?" Booker asked.

"I think, yes, I'm ok." The girl was more than a little shaken.

"You did good and don't forget to reload."

Lisa silently reloaded her pistol as her father got out the Research Camera.

"This seems so... easy for you." Lisa said in a slightly shaken voice as he finished researching.

"Easy? What is?"

"The fighting, killing. It's like it's…normal for you." There was a hint of revulsion in her voice.

"Do it because I have to, not because I take pleasure in it." Her mind went back to the Hall of Hero's. She hoped Booker did something to steer the conversation in a different direction. It was very easy to say something that could make her suspicious.

"How could you grow up in Rapture and be like that?"

"Didn't grow up in Rapture. Might say I'm say older than I look. And Rapture has its dark side, just like everywhere else. If it didn't, Fontaine wouldn't have had much a chance."

Lisa took a small step away from Booker. She probably didn't realize that she did so. "You worked for Fontaine?"

"No."

"Did you work Andrew Ryan then?" She seemed more comfortable with the idea that Booker had worked for Ryan. Despite yesterday, it really hadn't gotten through to her yet.

"Didn't work for Ryan either." The tone of her father's voice was hard and had an undercurrent of anger.

Lisa looked a little hurt.

"Sorry. The people I'm taking to you have no love for Fontaine, Atlas or Ryan. Would do well for you not to talk about them much or how great Rapture used to be. That Rapture is gone."

*The Rapture she believed in never existed for most of the people.*

*Doesn't exist for any now.* "Let's get that door open and get out of here."

-Booker-

Hated to be so hard on the girl, but speaking highly of Ryan to Clarice's people would not go well for her.

"So how are going to melt that ice?" Elizabeth was leaning against the wall with a slightly curious expression. He had seen that look before, she was up to something.

*Thought I would see if the napalm would do it.*

She nodded her head slightly in agreement and came up to walk next to him. Lisa stayed to the rear.

*And what is your concern?*

*I noticed that you aren't using your Plasmids as much as you used to.*

*Don't want to waste EVE.*

They were at the door now and he brought out the Chemical Thrower. *I wonder if that's the whole reason. When was the last time you used Possession?*

He played the flames over the door and the ice melted away with surprising speed. When had been the last time he'd used Possession? With so many immune to it, seemed like a waste of EVE.*Guess it's been awhile, why?*

The Tunnel was in good shape and they started walking down it. *No, I think it might be a good thing. When we find a cure for your ADAM sickness, it will certainly take away your Plasmids.*

*So it's a good thing I'm not depending on them too much.* Guess she was right about that.

After walking through a set of double doors they found themselves on balcony inside a large atrium. The opposite wall was glass top to bottom and looked out across the city. Long banners hung from the ceiling, everything was polished marble, brass and steal. Statues of men with their arms over their head dotted the walls. On the right side was a Securis Door that led to a tram station and then it was on to Athena's Glory.

At the moment though, they were about 60 feet off the atrium's floor.

*Reminds me of Market Street.* Elizabeth said with slight distaste as she looked down.

Booker took a closer look at the floor of the atrium. There were signs of combat and three dead bodies, but it could be a lot worse. *Market Street? Oh, Comstock.* There were some splicers moving about down below but they didn't seem to be looking for a fight at the moment.

The balcony they were on had a walkway that ran down the wall to the right. There were a couple corridors that led off the walkway and at the far end was an elevator.

Lisa gave a small sigh of relief when she spotted it. He wasn't about to count his chickens yet. True to form, as they got closer to the elevator, they could see there was a sign on it.

We're Sorry!

This elevator is under repair by Rodger's Expert Repair Service.

Please check back later.

Lisa just looked at it for several moments. "I don't believe this. It's broken? We're almost there and it's broken?"

"Welcome to our world." Elizabeth told her. Lisa didn't seem to notice it.

He turned and looked around the atrium, but didn't see anything he could latch onto with the Air Grabber. Might be for the best. Didn't think Lisa would enjoy the ride much.

"Just have to find another way down."

They checked down the corridors that branched off the walkway but didn't find another elevator or even a flight of stairs. Elizabeth said she hoped the architect for the place was still alive when she grew up because she wanted to spend a few days yelling at him about the poor design. They did find a Power To the People machine and decided to upgrade the Chemical Thrower's range. So it was back to the either getting the Hack Tool or destroying the Security Camera.

On the walk back, he decided to play the Audio Diary they found earlier.

_Cynthia Webber: Forgetting_

_February 17, 1959_

_Cynthia, this hopefully will be the first thing you see when you wake up. If everything worked, you can't remember anything that happened for the past few weeks. You don't want to remember. PLEASE! Don't try and find out what happened. The things they made me do, I...I can't take it anymore. I have to forget or... I spent all the money we had to buy a black market Plasmid. It's supposed to erase a person's memories. The man I bought it from said they use it on the Little Sisters to make them forget. If I get this right, we forget a few weeks, wrong and we forget everything. Really wrong and it might kill me. But that's still better than remembering. _

"What could be so bad you would want to erase your own memory?" Lisa asked. She couldn't understand.

"Best if you never find out." he told her

*I never would have expected that they had such a high degree of control in erasing someone's memories or more accurately, suppressing them.*

*Suppressing?*

*Yes, whatever they use to make the Little Sisters forget, it doesn't actually erase memories. It just makes it so they can't remember them.*

*Little like going through a tear.*

*Yes, if they had actually erased Anna's memories, I wouldn't, well, be here.*

*Means the Little Sisters will remember everything from before they became Sisters.*

They were almost back to the Oceanview now.

"If what was done to them is reversed, they should. I don't know how much they will remember about being Little Sisters. It's possible that the conditioning will interfere with how much they can remember. I wonder what Fink would have thought about this."

"Fink?" he asked. Lisa looked at him oddly and Elizabeth made an annoyed face at him.

*You're talking out loud again. Yes, Fink. When I want back in Columbia, I found that someone had proposed a Vigor to Fink that would erase a person's memories. He rejected it as being unmarketable.*

*Seems Suchong and Ryan found use for the same idea.*

They were at the Oceanview now and Booker stopped and looked around a moment. "I wonder." he muttered to himself.

*Something wrong?*

"Where are the bodies?"

Lisa looked at him with a slightly worried expression. "Bodies?"

*I see. Those splicers were ambushing people, their victims should be here someplace. Maybe someone who worked at Mitchel's.*

"Let's check the restaurant then." He told both of them.

As he walked towards it Lisa followed. He considered telling her to stay in the corridor a moment, but dismissed it. Be safer with him.

The Oceanview was larger than he had first expected and wasn't named for the view across the corridor. The restaurant had a glass wall and a glass roof that gave a sweeping view of the city and ocean. The style of the place was heavily fish themed. All sorts of fish mounted on everywhere, large tanks with now dead exotic fish in them, banisters made to look like a squid's arms. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling on long chains had fishing nets intertwined with the lights. The tables were even made of large pieces of coral they had cut to make a flat surface to make into tables.

*Overkill on the theme.* Elizabeth noted. She didn't look overly fond of the place.

Cold in here, so cold some of the fish tanks looked frozen. They moved a little further into the dining area and discovered that a part of it had been taken over by ice.

"Is that a wall of ice?" Lisa asked, not quite believing it.

"Looks like one. Entrance over there."

Elizabeth didn't seem to be bothered by the cold, but Lisa was hugging herself trying to keep warm. He told her to stay outside and walked in the Chemical Thrower ready. Everything in here was either made of ice or covered in it. The first room seemed to be a combination common area and trophy room. Center stage were five frozen bodies. Four of them posed as if they were recoiling in fear and one holding a machine gun. Along the walls were weapons and valuables, all covered with a thick layer of ice. Nothing looked worth the effort to try and break free.

Something felt wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

There were five rooms leading off the main one. They quickly looked at the first four rooms which turned out to be makeshift bedrooms.

Elizabeth figured it out before he did. *Booker, you fought three splicers, not four!*

He quickly turned back to the "statues" just in time to be hit by machine gun fire. He opened up with the Chemical Thrower igniting the splicer that held the machine gun. Moments later the flaming splicer ran into a "statue" and knocked it the ground before falling right beside it, dead.

"Mr. Boston, are you ok?" Lisa called to him from outside.

"I'm fine. Found another splicer." he told her.

*He must have known he didn't have much of chance of winning and hid.*

"Until he thought he had a good shot at my back." He looked down at the dead splicer a moment then noticed something about the frozen body that had been knocked over. He reached down and cleared away some of the broken ice. There was some kind of stitching on the back of the man's shirt. Jon Mitchel's Electronics. So they had killed someone who worked there, then they decided to use his body as decoration.

*I hope he has the keys on him.*

After carefully defrosting the body with the Thrower and searched it. Nothing. Next he searched the dead splicer after researching him. Some money, but no keys.

They searched the rest of the room and didn't find it. Then the bedrooms, still nothing.

"How much longer are you going to be?" Lisa asked. She sounded a little worried and she was probably getting cold.

"Just a minute." He yelled back. "Where could it be?" he asked himself more softly.

*Maybe one the splicers outside has it. You didn't check them earlier.*

"Not the kind of thing one would carry around as trophy." They'd searched everywhere in here though.

No, no they hadn't. "Never forget to look up." Caught fishnet of the chandelier above them were small pieces of metal, coins, a spoon, two forks, jewelry and a key.

*Looks like one of the splicers had a habit for tossing things up there.*

"Now to get it down." He lifted the Grabber and let the magnets do their work. The first try he got piece of polished steel. The second time a spoon. For the third try he lifted up the Grabber and sighted down its length and they had the key.

*Now we can get out of here without doing anything that might attract Ryan's attention.*

"Couldn't be soon enough."

End Chapter 57


	58. Chapter 58

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 58

-Booker-

After getting the key for Mitchel's Electronics he walked out to where Lisa was waiting. She had taken a seat but was looking very uncomfortable.

"It's about time, I'm freezing!" Was clear she wasn't complaining just to complain. It looked like she was starting to shiver from the cold. Elizabeth didn't seem to have a problem, but she was probably more used to it.

He held up the key. "Can get that Hack Tool now."

"Well, I guess it was worth it then." She seemed slightly embarrassed. "You don't seem to be that cold."

"Been in colder places than this." Elizabeth raised her eyebrow a little at that, but didn't say anything.

"Let's get out of here. I've never been so cold in my life. Brrr!"

"Never cold even when you were a kid?"

They were at the doors now. "I was born in Florida."

"Guess not."

No one talked until they got to the entrance to Mitchel's. The key opened the door and Booker stepped in the shop first, wary of any security systems that might have been left. Didn't think there were any, but wasn't about to take chances.

The first floor was clear so he told Lisa it was safe to come in. She immediately went over to the Hack Tool and picked it up. Elizabeth was watching over her shoulder. He was surprised she hadn't gotten to it first. That... that wasn't right was it? He shook his head to clear it a little.

When she was done Lisa walked over to hand the Hack Tool to him.

"Booker, she should be the one to hack the camera. If you do it, the camera would still see her." Elizabeth told him.

"Yeah, think you should keep that and hack the camera."

"But what if I hack it and it still calls Security Bots to attack you?"

"No worry there. Think you'll have a problem using that?"

"No, it's fairly simple." Lisa seemed a little puzzled by his causal dismissal of the Bots.

"Just want to take a quick look upstairs. Be right back."

He quickly climbed the stairs to find a large workshop full of all kinds of equipment and parts. In the center of the room were three partially built turrets and over to one side was a U-Invent. One of the tables had an Auto Hack on it which he picked up. The rest of the space was taken up by an office with big glass windows and four desks.

Elizabeth was looking at something on one of the tables. She shifted some papers aside, was almost as if she were looking for something.

"Can you take a look at what's on that table to your right." she asked.

'My right? But she's already over.. there...'

'Isn't ..'

'she?'

Hard to think for a moment. Not here, not here. Have to remember she's not really here. He went over to where Elizabeth stood, appeared to stand and looked over the papers.

*Just what I thought. These are plans for building turrets. Specifications, everything one would need.*

"Not all of much use without the parts."

*From what I can see, most of the parts are readily available. A swivel office chair is a biggest single part of it. The only things that would be hard to get would be the gun and the electronic "brain" that controls it."

He looked to the U-Invent. "Think one of those could make that brain thing?"

*I suppose it could. But we don't have the memory card for that.*

Lisa called up. "Is there someone up there?"

"Damn it." he muttered softly. Not here. Shouldn't be talking so loud. He called back to the girl. "Sorry, just thinking out loud. Be down in a minute."

*Why can't she come up?*

"Lisa, why don't you come up? Something of interest up here."

As the girl came up the stairs she asked "What do think I would find interesting?"

Then she saw the half built turrets. "Turrets?" She didn't quite know what to think.

He pointed to the "On the table, plans to make them."

"You want me to make a turret?"

"No, but it may of be of use when you're with Clarice's people."

"I guess you're right." she admitted and collecting the plans. "You haven't seen any U-Invent memory cards, have you?"

"No, where might they be?"

"They're very expensive so they should be locked up."

"Let's see then."

He and Elizabeth walked towards the office as Lisa gathered the turret plans.

*Do you really think that making turrets will help her fit in?*

"Couldn't…" Don't talk out loud! *Couldn't hurt. Couple of turrets could make a real difference if someone attacked.*

The office door was open, so no problem there. Along the back wall was a large safe. As they walked to it he picked up an Audio Diary sitting on one of the desks and played it.

_Jon Mitchel: Not So Stupid_

_November 19, 1958_

_When I came here, I thought Rapture was great. No stupid government laws and regulations, no one telling me what to do. If you had the drive you could be a millionaire. I built a business from the ground up, worked hard, treated people fairly, honestly. Then I got screwed over in a contract, almost lost everything I had worked for. "Read the fine print" they said. They had bullshit clauses in there no court back in Boston would let stand a minute! THEN the bastards tried to buy me out! _

_Those stupid government laws? They don't seem so stupid no more. _

*Someone else who's not very happy with how Rapture turned out for them.*

*No surprise. Those with money stack the deck against them without.* They turned their attention to the safe. He tried to hack it and got a hefty shock when he made a mistake. Damn near would have killed a normal person, but fortunately his Shield took it. This safe was a lot harder to hack than anything he had seen so far.

*I think you better use that Auto Hack.* Elizabeth told him with a stern expression.

"Think your right." he admitted softly.

When the safe was open, they found three memory cards, a few dollars and two more Hark Darts. They looked different from the other ones they had seen. Maybe Lisa would know.

They took what they found back to Lisa. She said she thought the memory cards were useful and valuable, the one they wanted wasn't there. He and Elizabeth both looked at the U-Invent at the same time.

*They must have left the plugged in.* she said shaking her head slightly.

He went to the U-Invent and pulled the card from it and handed it to Lisa.

She read the label and gave a small smile. "Yes, this is it. Can we go now?"

"Yeah, think we can go."

They walked back downstairs and to the door that led out. On the way he asked what the darts they found in the safe were.

"I think those automatically hack whatever you use them on, like an Auto Hack Tool you can shoot."

"Huh, hadn't heard of anything like that."

*Neither have I.* Elizabeth sounded irritated. He wasn't quite sure if it was because she had never heard of the hack tool before today or that Lisa knew more about some things than she did.

"They were still in development when I took my classes. They probably only started making them a little while ago."

They were at the door now. He was trying to figure out how to hack that thing without her being seen. "How does that work? You just shoot the camera?"

"Yes. After the dart hits the target I have a second or two before it activates."

"So you can shoot it and step back."

"Yes."

*Think I should Bypass it before she tries to hack it?*

*Yes, that way it can see you and not raise an alarm. It shouldn't affect the hack.*

Lisa had the Hack Tool out and looking at it. "I think I better practice one time, just be on the safe side."

"You know more than I do."

Lisa shot a dart into the nearby Circus of Values then looked intently at the readout on the device. Every second or so she pulled the trigger again. After the third time she looked up and smiled.

"Done."

*That's a lot easier than rearranging the pipes inside one of the things.* Elizabeth said with grudging admiration.

*Lot faster too.* "How does that work?" he asked Lisa as he walked over to get the dart only to find it had burned itself out. One use only it seemed.

"It reprograms a specific portion of the memory on these machines. The cameras, turrets, most of the vending machines all use the same memory systems."

"Huh, what works with one, works on all."

*Let's hear it for the standardization of equipment.*

"So ready?" he asked the girl.

Lisa put a brave smile on her face. It lasted about two seconds before it faded.

"I'll open the door and you start to hack it, ok?" Lisa nodded.

Booker opened the door and quickly launched the Bypass Plasmid at it. A moment later a dart impacted and he allowed the door to close. He stood as Lisa remotely hacked the camera. Took a little longer than with the Circus machine.

"Whew. Got it." She gave a wane smile.

"Then let's get going."

He went through the door first, but didn't see anyone. He didn't bother to check the three dead bodies, he could check them if they came back this way. They made their way down the corridor, through a small park like area with potted plants and a fountain, then down several flights of stairs. Along the way Lisa showed him how to use the Hack Tool.

The further then went on, the more corpses they found and the more damage from fighting. Soon they came to a series of apartments. Many had been broken into and ransacked, but others were still occupied. Several splicers came out to look at them, weapons at ready, but they didn't attack. Looked like they were guarding their territory. Didn't seem they consider him and Lisa to be a threat.

_Atlas is a friend of the Parasite. Don't be a friend of Atlas. _

Past a couple of small shops, a ruined school and what looked to be an art gallery they found another flight of stairs going down. Didn't like how dark it was down there. He handed the flashlight to Lisa and told her to aim it down the stairs as he walked down.

Just as he took the first step down a figure stepped into the light. He was large and hunched over, clothes were torn and stained dark red. He looked up and his face was covered with scars from ADAM use, burns and cuts.

"Hey, can you help me?" the man yelled up.

"Just stay down there fella."

"Just need a hand. Just a little help..." The man staggered up a couple of steps.

He heard Elizabeth take a step back. "I don't think he really needs help."

He'd seen more than enough people with real injuries and knew how they acted. "Faking it." he said softly. "Get back." he told Lisa. Elizabeth was already safely away.

"But he's hurt." Lisa implored.

He stole a quick glance at her. "Get back, now."

"Hey, PLEASE! I just need a little help! Look, I'm bleeding!" the man called up.

"How can I help?" he called down to the splicer.

The man put his hand against the wall as if to stead himself. But at the same time he put his right hand behind his back.

"I just need you to...DIE!" the splicer yelled as he brought up a pistol.

Booker fired the shotgun twice and the Leadhead fell backwards down the stairs. He heard movement down below and he quickly loaded two more shells into the shotgun. As he finished, a splicer with a baseball bat ran up the stairs. Another splicer with a double barreled shotgun appeared behind him and fired.

He emptied the shotgun down the stairwell killing both splicers. The single shotgun blast the one splicer had fired hadn't been enough to get through his Shield. As he reloaded he glanced at Lisa to make sure she was ok.

"They were trying to trick us." she said with a slightly confused voice.

"Was a trap. Someone tries to help, they kill 'em and take what they had."

He switched to the Tommy Gun and started down the stairs.

"How did you know?"

"Seen a lot of hurt people, didn't move like one."

Elizabeth raised one eyebrow slightly. "I though you noticed all the blood on him was old and dried."

"Whatever works." Not out loud, not here. Didn't seem that Lisa heard him.

None else was lying in wait at the bottom of the stairway and they quickly left the area. No telling if the dead splicers had friends. As they walked Lisa asked why the people in the apartments hadn't warned them. He explained that there could be many reasons. They didn't know, didn't care, may have even been working with them.

Shortly they came to a Securis door that opened up to the glass tunnel that led to Odysseus Manor.

Elizabeth's stood and concentrated a moment. *Unless I am badly mistaken this should leave us very close to the atrium we were in earlier.*

*Hope so. The girl's starting to get worn out.*

*She does look like she could use a rest. Too bad we can't let her take one.*

They left the tunnel and re-entered Odysseus Manor. The entryway here was large and had a Bistro, a Happy Noodle and the Loreil Salon. A few splicers were about, but were either lost in their madness or didn't want anything to do with them. Surprisingly the Bistro was still open, a hard looking splicer with a shotgun guarded the entrance and carefully watched the three, two of them as they passed by.

A wide archway led them to the atrium they had looked down into earlier. A small group of splicers were arguing about something outside a ruined shoe store. After a few moments a Rosie with a Little Sister walked through the doors at the far end of the atrium. A glance was all he needed to know it wasn't Anna. There was an ammo machine here, but it was too close to the splicers. 'Not worth it.'

_If anyone says they want to help you for nothing in return, they've lying to you. Take care of yourself because you're the only who ever will. It's the Rapture Way!_

He looked around a moment and got the Research Camera out.

"What are you doing?"

"Researching live splicers is a lot better than the dead ones." He took a quick picture of the splicers before they noticed him, then switched to the Big Daddy and his charge. Elizabeth went over to wait by the Securis door that led to the tram tunnel. Lisa didn't seem to know what to do.

As he took the last picture she asked "Isn't that dangerous?"

"What?"

"Being that close to a Big Daddy and a Little Sister?"

"Long as you keep a little distance, they won't do anything." He gestured towards the Elizabeth and the Securis Door. "Not far now."

-Elizabeth-

No one tried to attack them the rest of the trip. This tram tunnel was like the others they had been in and had seen its share of fighting. She had taken this tram line several times back when she … when she had been Elizabeth. Metropolis Central Terminal was back the opposite direction they were walking and the further they got from it, the less damage they saw. Along the way they passed a wall where two people had been tired up and shot, the word "bandits" written above them in their own blood.

Further on they saw three splicers beating a fourth to death. All the time they screamed "Atlas" over and over again. When they were finished they ran to a nearby station and into the city beyond.

Lisa asked. "Do those.. people support Atlas?"

"Don't know. One they killed might have worked for Atlas. Really doesn't matter, does it?"

*The dead probably don't care much what the reason was.*

Booker glanced to the left before nodding a little. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. She was sure his delusion was getting worse. The times when he treated the illusion of her as real were getting longer and longer and the times he questioned it were farther apart.

She could try and manage him, remind him she wasn't really there, but she was afraid that would make it worse, not better. Fortunately, other than the delusion, he was as he always had been, but how long would that last? She noticed that he was favoring his left leg a little more and the varicose veins on the back of his hand were worse as well. She didn't think he realized that his physical state was deteriorating as fast as it was. The prospect of her father's physical and mental decline hurt in its own way as much as the death of the Little Sister.

And like with the Little Sister there was nothing she could do about it. When they found Anna she hoped that she wouldn't realize there was something wrong with her father.

No, Anna, SHE would know something was wrong. But what could a five year old Little Sister do to cure ADAM sickness?

Nothing.

As they walked past an overturned tram car it reminded her again of Prosperity Plaza and the Port. People's belonging strew about as they desperately tried to flee. Not so many dead here though and the flight had occurred some time ago.

Out of the corner of Booker's eye she caught the glimpse of a familiar shade of blue in a tipped over suitcase.

*Booker, could you turn back the right again?*

As he did his eyes focused on what she had seen. A Gear. He walked over and picked it up. It was called "The Sound of Silence". When activated if muffled the sound of weapons fire. That sounded like it would be very useful in situations where stealth was required.

The fighting wasn't as fierce as it was the last time they had been in this part of the city. Only on occasion did an explosion shake the tunnel.

Soon they could see Athena's Glory, which was good. Lisa looked like she didn't have much left strength left. All that was needed was to walk the last 50 or so yards.

Her father got out his short wave radio. "This is Boston. Sorry I'm late. Ran into a few problems."

It was a minute before there was a response.

+_What's the password?_\+ William's voice came back. He tried to sound professional, but there was a clear sense of relief in his voice.

"Marshmallow." Booker probably felt a little silly saying that. Might be why Mary chose it.

+_I'll tell the people at the doors to be ready for you. Mary should be down in a few minutes. Glad you made it back._+

They finished the walk up to the apartment building in just a few minutes. When they got there Sam was waiting along with a few of others who had been down in Fontaine's. There was only one she didn't recognize. Must be one of the new people they had taken in.

"Finally got here, did ja?" Sam yelled down good naturedly.

"Sorry, traffic was terrible."

Sam walked down to meet them as they were walking up the stairs to the upper level, they could hear one of the elevators running.

*With any luck that will be Mary.*

As they finished walking up the stairs, her father looked around some, noting some new scars left by fighting. The turret William built had been destroyed. The information they had brought on building turrets may prove more useful than she had first expected.

"How's it been going?" her father asked Sam.

"Had a couple big attacks. Lost the turret in the last one. William nearly cried. Haven't lost any people, but it's been close. Splicers seem to have learned to leave us alone, at least for the moment. How's lookin' for your kid been going?"

"No luck so far."

"Sorry to hear that. Hope you find her soon. Would like to meet her."

The elevator doors opened and Mary stepped out. Behind her were Mr. Wildhelm and his wife. Mrs. Wildhelm immediately went over to Lisa.

"Oh, you poor thing! Mary, I'll take her upstairs right now." the older woman told Mary. Lisa looked slightly confused by the attention.

Behind his wife Wildhelm gave a little smile and went to help her. It had been nice to play even a small part in getting those two back together.

Mary nodded. "I'll talk to her later then. Would be better after she's had some rest."

Booker looked at Mary carefully. She seemed worn and a bit tired herself.

'Looks like she should take her own advice.'

"You ok?" Booker asked Mary.

Mary's shoulders slumped a little, but gave Booker a small smile. "Being the boss isn't easy."

"The girl might have something to make it easier." Mary tipped her head slightly, telling him to continue. "Ran across on a place that made turrets. If there's a U-Invent around, might be able to make most of what you need to build them."

"That's good. A couple turrets would be very nice to have. William built the last one out of parts from three destroyed ones."

"Girl's got schooling in electronics. She and William might be able to work together."

Huh. She hadn't thought of that. Lisa and William were a lot more alike than one would think given their backgrounds.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"This might take a few minutes, want to go upstairs?"

"Fine here."

"Well, at least we can sit down." She said as she looked towards a couple of chairs.

After they took their seats, Mary started talking. "Rapture's a mess." "You know that as well as anyone I guess. Since everything has gone to hell there are small groups of people who are cutting themselves off from the rest of the city to keep the splicers out."

"Kinda like what you are doing here."

"Yeah, they've gone farther though, destroying tunnels and stairways, anything to isolate themselves. We're talking with two other groups right now, heard rumors of a few others. We've started calling ourselves enclaves."

"Not totally cut off."

*They must be using the Pneumo's to communicate.* she speculated to Booker.

"No. We use the shortwaves and Pneumo's to send messages back and forth. We've started trading back and forth a little. We're doing ok so far, but sooner or later we are going to have trouble getting food."

"Think I might have an answer." She was sure he was thinking the same thing she was.

Mary blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Happen to know someone who grows a lot of food."

"You do? How…"

"Saved her from a bunch of religious fanatics. Her name is Samantha Gomez, she's the boss at Garden Hall."

Mary looked impressed despite herself. "It seems you've been rather busy."

"Nothing new for me."

Mary made a sound that was a little like a laugh, then became more sober. "Any luck on finding your daughter?"

"Thought I had a lead, didn't pan out." Booker glanced at the destroyed turret and paused. He was thinking of something. No, he was up to something.

"Can I ask a favor Mary?"

"Sure, we owe you a lot "Mr. Boston"."

"Can you…" Her father took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm… not well. ADAM sickness is making me see things and it's going to get worse. If I find Anna, I may not be able to care for her. Worse, I might hurt her."

*Booker! What do you think you're doing! I am Not…*

*QUIET! Please….* He sounded angry but she knew he wasn't, he was frightened. Frightened of what he might become and what he might do. Frightened for her. But still!

She wouldn't say anything now, but after they left she was going to have a few words with her father.

Mary took a moment to think. "We have children here already, so that's not a problem. Xin would probably enjoy having a girl around rather than all the boys. But a Little Sister?"

"She's not like the other ones. Whatever they do to them didn't work right on her."

"How do you know that?"

"That lead that didn't pan out? It was one of Ryan's people complaining about Anna. She was fighting them."

"How do you know they were talking about your daughter?"

Booker gave a short chuckle. "One thing I know is my daughter. It was her."

Mary took a deep breath as she thought. "Ok, we'll take her. But if she's dangerous or splicers come looking for her, deals off." "I can't risk everyone here."

"I understand, thank you."

"I would be much happier if you and your daughter could both join us."

"Don't allow splicers, remember?"

"We can make an exception."

Booker shook his head. "Not a good idea. Not with how I am."

"You could move in over on that side of the building." She pointed to the other side of the tram tracks. "No one's over there."

"Huh, that might work. I'll think about it." Polite of Booker not to mention he had already thought of doing just that. "Best that I should get going. Need anything, you know how to contact me." He told Mary as he stood up.

Mary didn't look that happy. The decision that she would turn Anna out if there was a problem didn't sit well with her. She didn't blame Mary for it though. She didn't want everyone here getting hurt because of her being a Little Sister either.

As Booker started walking away a voice called from the elevators. He turned to see that it was Wildhelm. "Hey, Mr. Boston! Wait a minute."

"Something wrong?" Booker asked as the other man came up.

"No, Lisa said to give you this." Wildhelm said as he pulled the Hack Tool from his pocket. "Said she didn't need it, but you might."

Her father took the Hack Tool and the other man dug in his pockets and pulled out the darts for it.

"Thank you. And tell Lisa thank you for me."

"I will." Wildhelm smiled. "Take care out there."

She waited until Booker was out of Athena's Glory and a short distance down the tunnel.

*Mister DeWitt, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!*

Her father flinched. "Making sure you would be safe." he told her softly.

*I KNOW…. I know that. But why didn't you tell me? How long were you planning to do that?*

"Didn't plan it, not really. Was talking to Mary and noticed you looking at what was left of William's turret. Then I remembered you weren't really there. When we were walking I was sure that you were here, not just something in my head."

*That doesn't make you dangerous. You are not going to hurt your daughter.*

"Not now, not yet. What if I start seeing other things, believing they're real? Think someone is attacking?"

*You won't hurt me.*

"And if I don't see Anna anymore? What if I see a Crow or a Jockey?"

*You won't. I trust you, you won't.* Despite her arguing, she knew he could be right. He could become so delusional he didn't know his own daughter. But still something told her it could never happen. Anyway, he should have talked about it with her first!

"Hope you're right." "Maybe seeing Elizabeth will be the only thing. But can't take that chance. If it's safe, Anna won't have to go anywhere."

She couldn't think of a counter argument. *Just be sure of one thing Mister DeWitt. You are not going to be rid of me easily and not without the best of causes.*

"Didn't think it would be any other way."

End Chapter 58


	59. Chapter 59

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 59

-Elizabeth-

After she finished "talking" to Booker about the possibility of leaving Anna with Clarice's people, they decided to search the buildings along the route to back to the office. Rather than going back through Odysseus Manor they decided to head south towards Fort Frolic to Tantalus Place and then the Blue Ascot. It seemed safer and more direct than the going back the way they had first came. They looked through Medusa's Court, Goliath Suites and Triangle Apartments. They tried to enter Titan's Avenue, but discovered that the whole building had flooded.

They saw two Little Sisters and five different Big Daddies. Her father was able to raise the research level on the Bouncers which would help if he ever had to fight one. She hoped he never did. The Big Daddies were too similar to Songbird for her.

A pair of El Ammo Bandito machines allowed her father to refill much the ammo he had used in the past two days. But only one of the half dozen Circus of Values machines they found had a Hack Dart in it.

For the most part the splicers they saw didn't bother them. Only a single mad Leadhead did try to attack them. Booker used the Chemical Thrower to freeze him. Before he thawed Booker moved behind him and struck after the ice broke. The splicer was staggered, but was not rendered unconscious. Her father switched Gear and killed the splicer.

Booker stood and looked down at the dead splicer a moment. "Hit him hard enough should have near broken his skull. More than enough to knock him out."

*It's a kind of natural selection I suppose. The weaker splicers are being killed by the stronger more aggressive ones.*

"So, longer the fighting goes on, be less splicers but they'll be tougher."

*Rapture was founded on a Social Darwinist philosophy...* Booker made a disgusted sound. *even if they don't call it that. Now instead of "survival of the fittest" economically…*

"It's just survival of the fittest. Who'd better at killing. Wonder what that makes me?"

*A father looking for his daughter.*

"Huh. Well then Elizabeth, let's continue looking."

Broad Avenue, which didn't seem all that broad to her, reminded her a little of Columbia. The street level had stores and small business's while the upper four floors above where apartments. Above each business entrance were lighting sconces that illuminated the avenue. They were much plainer than those they had seen in Fontaine's, but looked like would be able to hold Booker's weight. Down the center of the "avenue" here planters for trees and bushes with a few benched for people to sit on. The ceiling was glass and let some light in some light from above, but no grand views of the city like Odysseus Manor had.

A few of the stores were still open and those that were had one or more grim faced people with ADAM scars and weapons guarding them. In one block two stores had burned and the apartments above had suffered the same fate. She wondered why all of this place hadn't burned to the ground.

"Reminds me a little of New York." Booker mentioned.

*It does?* She supposed it did. Rapture copied much from New York City.

"People always think of big monuments and famous buildings, but places like this are where most live and work."

She started to feel sleepy. She managed to tell her father "Nap time" before everything faded away.

When she woke they were on the far end of Broad Avenue. She must not have slept long. Booker was just about to enter an abandoned Reliable Pharmacy.

*Think there's anything in here?*

"You saw the sign that said they had Infusions on sale." There was an odd tone in his voice.

*Booker, I just woke up from Anna's nap.*

"I...I guess you... did." He sounded a little confused for a moment. "Saw the Little Sister for this area a few minutes ago." *Thought to take a look here for an Infusion before we left.*

*Be nice to find one. Maybe there's something else here we could use as well.*

"Like what?"

*Won't know until we see it.*

"Fair enough."

She had been wondering if there might be some kind of medication that Booker could take to help fight the delusions caused by his ADAM Sickness. But despite all her medical knowledge, she didn't know what would work. There hadn't been much about mental illness in her library on Monument Island and she hadn't taken the time to read much about it when she came to Rapture. One thing she did know was that picking the wrong medication could be much worse than leaving her father untreated.

They walked into the ransacked pharmacy and looked around. It looked as if people had come in and just started throwing things on the floor. A counter on the right had a display advertising Infusions. All around were smashed bottles, but sitting in the middle of the display was a single untouched Infusion. It reminded her of the last bottle of Shock Jockey in down in former Fontaine's Plasmids. All around was destruction and yet there was a Plasmid bottle sitting there untouched, just as this Infusion was.

Almost as if it had been put there just for them.

Her father went over and drank the Infusion. He took a deep breath, but didn't say anything. They spent a few more minutes looking around but only found some band aids, a battery, shotgun ammo and a blood splattered Audio Diary.

_Christopher Burgess: Fear_

_January 27, 1959_

_I worked hard, was a loyal employee. Provided pretty good for Sherry and Louis. Life was good, safe. Now, I walk down the street and I'm scared of Atlas's thugs or that Rapture Security will want to "talk to me." The boss warned me they're cutting staff and I might be one of them. Not even safe at home anymore. Sherry, she's, she's been splicing. I don't KNOW her anymore and that… Thing growing on her neck! Is it safe to leave Louis with her? Is it safe anywhere, anymore?_

'Guess one of his fears came true.'

They left Broad Avenue after that and made their way back towards Fortune Avenue and then to Prosperity Way. From the Way they could get to Neptune's Bounty, hopefully without all the side trips they had needed to get to Athena's Glory.

Still, it took several hours just to get to Prosperity Way. At this rate, they would get to Neptune's Bounty about the time Anna stopped working. Passing through The Blue Ascot they found that most of the dead had been taken away. Ryan must have sent someone to clean the place up. Somehow she didn't think Ryan had done it out of the goodness of his heart. It was probably turning into a health hazard. Booker said he was just glad the smell was much more tolerable now.

When they got to damaged doorway leading into the Fortune Avenue they found that someone had put some large pieces of wood and a few metal support beams in place to stave off collapse. She didn't think they had known what they were doing, it looked as if they had shoved supports under the arch and hoped of the best. Some of the wood look fire damaged and metal had scorch marks on it.

*Booker, how long do you think we will be using this passageway? Keep it open for as long as we can sounds like a good idea.*

He glanced to the left as he thought a moment. "Do seem to down here a fair amount. Guess shoring this up properly would be a good idea."

"Wonder who put all this up?" Booker wondered out loud as he put the last support in place.

*It's strange that a lot of these supports are damaged.*

"Not a repairman." He rapped one of the metal beams. It had the dull sound of aluminum. "Most this is light, hundred pounds or so."

*Booker, "light" is a relative term.* She couldn't even think of picking up that much. Still he had a point. Someone who worked for Rapture maintenance would have access to better and heavier materials. And they would have installed them a lot better.

Booker looked over the work he had done critically. "Think something heavier will help this last longer?"

*It certainly couldn't hurt. Where can we get something heavier?*

"Same place these likely came from." He was looking at the ruins of Sea's Best Foods and Carmichael's Used Goods. As they walked over Booker kept a close watch on the area around them but paused occasionally to look closely at the floor. The second time he stopped she saw what he was looking at. Drag marks. Whoever had put those supports up had dragged them from the ruins.

A metaphor for the entire city she supposed. Rapture was scavenging everything it could from the ruins to keep itself going.

They looked first in Sea's Best where it was clear that someone had been working here already. Whoever had been here had dug out cans of food as well as the supports. There were a couple of good foot prints here, but they didn't look very big. They had to be a child's. After finding a heavy support beam the right length, they ran into a problem of getting it to the entrance. It was too heavy for even Booker to carry very far.

"Should have some kind of dollies here." he muttered and looked around a few moments before he spotted one. After digging it out and cleaning it off a little, he used it to move the heavy beam. Shortly the beam in position.

*That should keep it from collapsing for a little while.* she said as Booker brushed the soot off and headed for the Securis door that would take them back to the office and then Prosperity Way for the tunnel that went to Neptune's Bounty.

When they got to the Way all the fires were out and some of the dead had been taken away. A few splicers still wandered about looking for anything that caught their fancy. When they got near to the tunnel entrances they found that a turret had been set up to cover the area.

Booker brought up Bypass, but paused a moment. "Think we could use that?"

*To guard the office? I suppose we could. After its Bypassed you could turn it off and drag it back.*

"Something to look forward to for tonight."

They continued on towards Neptune's Bounty and found it easier going then they expected. There seemed to be a little less fighting now. There were signs of past combat, but it was fairly quiet. Quiet for war time at least. They were stopped once by Rapture Security and had to kill a mad Spider Splicer that attacked them.

Neptune's Bounty was different than the other parts of the city. Lots of plain concrete with some areas painted in dull flat colors. Large section of the walls were covered in large pieces of corrugated metal, some of which had been used for makeshift walls and awnings. Most of the floors were wood and tended to creak when Booker walked on it. Booker said it smelled like the Fulton Fish Market.

Pier One of Neptune's Bounty was bigger than she had expected and had a good deal of activity. People moving back and forth, all under the watch full of Rapture Security. A little while after they arrive they even saw one of the massive fishing subs come into dock with a cargo hold full of fish. They were there for about an hour before she sensed that Anna had quit for the day.

It seemed like Neptune's Bounty had been a good choice. There were stairs all over and large numbers of Spider Splicers. On the way back to the office Booker tired a restaurant called "Hospitality Take Out". He wasn't overly impressed with the quality of the food, but said it was better than going hungry.

She finally was able to convince him to let her look at his leg. There as a large benign tumor growing on his lower leg and its growth was seemed fairly rapid. She was a little worried that the skin over the tumor might start to split. The only treatment for something like this was surgery.

"I'll make an anointment to see Steinman right away." was his response.

They waited until late to get the turret from Prosperity Way. The later it was, the quieter it should be.

When they got there it was quiet with only a couple of splicers still awake and walking around. One of them kept on repeating how he wanted to sleep, but couldn't. Booker went right to the turret and turned it off.

He went to move it and stopped. "Little heavier than I though."

*The Renaissance has luggage carts.*

"That they do."

A few minutes later they were wheeling the turret down the Way and towards the office. Booker moved it into the passageway near the office. It was close enough that it would fire any anyone trying to get to the office, but not so close to seem as it was set to guard it. After putting the turret in place her father started back towards Prosperity Way with the cart.

*You're taking it back?*

"Don't want someone asking why a luggage cart was down here."

They were halfway back to Prosperity Way when she started to feel sleepy. *About time for me to go to bed.*

"Think I can take this back by myself."

*Good night Booker.*

They spent all of the next day on Pier One. They did some exploring, but most of the time they just waited for a Little Sister to show up. While waiting they spent their time reading the history book. The Second World War and the start of the Cold War. It was interesting, depressing and hopeful all the same time. They also were able to get a lot of Research done and Booker raised his levels for both Little Sisters and the Rosie Big Daddies. In addition there were several Wind Walkers, a Controller, large numbers of Leadheads, Thuggish and of course Spider Splicers.

As the day wore on she noticed Booker's ADAM Sickness getting slowly worse. He favored his left leg a little more and often thought Elizabeth was there.

The next day was much the same as the first, but they were on Pier Two. This area had suffered more damage in the fighting and there were a less splicers about. Unfortunately, the ones that were there tended to be more aggressive and Booker was attacked more than half a dozen times. With the results of the Research, the fights didn't last long. The only real threat came from a pair of Wind Walkers that decided they didn't like the way Booker looked. As the fight had progressed, her father had researched them enough that he gained some immunity from "air" based attacks like Sonic Boom. She really didn't know how that worked, but it kept Booker from being as badly hurt as he might have been.

Along with the Wind Walkers they reached another level for Spider Splicers which she thought was a good thing. Then she read the description of what the research allowed Booker to do.

*That's disgusting! Using Spider Splicer organs as replacement for First Aid Kits? Who would come up with something like that?!*

"People do all sorts of thing if they are desperate enough."

*But using human organs? That's almost cannibalism!*

"If it's between using splicer organs or dying, what do you think most would do?"

*...use the organs.* she admitted unwillingly. She thought a moment and if it was a life or death situation, she probably would do the same. *Of course it would be better to have real First Aid Kits or not to have to use them in the first place.*

"Certainly would."

On the way back to the office and Booker decided to stop at the Hospitality Take Out again.

"So what do you want Elizabeth?" Booker asked as he looked at the menu.

*Booker, I'm not there, remember?*

He looked to the right. "Really, should eat something."

*I'm not there. I'm... ah, on a radio.*

"Guess I can cook something for you when we get back. Hopefully be a little better than this."

Should she play along? *The food here doesn't look that appetizing. I'll eat later.*

"Long as you're sure." He seemed easily satisfied with her the answer.

It wasn't fair. It. Wasn't. FAIR! He had gone through so MUCH and now... now the delusion had taken over.

She had counted on her father to listen to what she said, to Believe what she said. But it seemed his delusion wouldn't allow to hear what she said if it contradicted his delusion. She hadn't read a great deal about delusions, but she knew they weren't supposed to work quite like this. ADAM. The Communication Plasmid. It all must be doing more to his mind then she thought. As they went back to office they made small talk and she carefully tested the limits of the delusion.

It was strange in a way. Despite his delusion, he acted almost ... normal. The delusion seemed to be self-correcting in some way. He forgot that she hadn't eaten and never brought it up again when they got back to the office. As the night wore on it seemed that he started to deliberately avoid things that might even begin challenge his delusion. Even his memory of events seemed to change to include Elizabeth helping him.

Part of her wanted to cry. Another part wanted to let her rage out on something, anything. Her father was sick and there was nothing she could do about it.

The only good thing she could see was that the delusion didn't trouble him, cause him to suffer. At least she hoped he wasn't suffering.

He made things up in Anna's room so she would have a bed and bid her good night. As Booker got ready to sleep she closed her eyes and ears. Tried to think of something, anything she could do. She was still thinking when she went to sleep.

The next day they were at Pier Three. It seemed as if there had been a lot of heavy fighting here and it was in even worse shape than Pier Two. There were more bodies here than in both Pier One and Two combined. A dozen chained prisoners carefully watched over by Rapture Security were picking up the dead and putting them into carts for disposal. At one of the docks, a fishing sub lay half submerged in the water, a gaping hole blown in its side.

They have been on Pier Three for several hours and had seen only one Big Daddy and no Little Sisters, so they decided to change locations. They were walking down a passageway and heard noise ahead them. People talking loudly, a large group of them. At least five people, probably six. Booker decided that it would be a good idea to avoid them and turned at the next passageway which led to the Metro Station.

Hanging on ropes were two bodies, one of them looked like it had been there for only a few hours. Over the corpse's heads was scrawled the "Smuggler" in blood red paint.

*Ryan certainly like to make examples, doesn't he?* she told her father in a disgusted tone of voice.

"Don't think subtlety isn't a strong point of people who make places like this."

The group of people was coming down the passageway behind them.

They looked around but there wasn't anywhere to take cover, even with the Chamaeleon Gear. "Damn. Guess we get to see what the Metro here looks like."

The Metro Station had only two docking bays, only one of which was occupied. There were a few crates and some piles of rubbish here, but no place to take cover and no other exit.

Booker noticed a metal gantry off the right and looked up. Above them was a freight hook and further to the right some kind of ledge.

"Never forget to look up. I'll go ahead."

A moment later they were hanging from the hook. The ledge was wide enough for her father to land on and there was large air vent set back in a large recess. He dismounted on the ledge and motioned her to come up.

Her father took a closer look at the vent grate and discovered that it had been taken off and was just resting in place. Booker moved the grate aside and crouched down to enter the vent. They first thing they saw was that there was a light further down. The light seemed to be in some kind of larger area, a room maybe. The next thing they noticed was dark red stains on the floor of the vent. The stains became larger the further in they went.

Below them, the group they were avoiding entered the docking bay. They could hear what the men were saying clearly now and she was glad Booker chose to avoid them. They were proudly talking about the smuggler they had hung earlier in the day. One said he didn't think he had actually been smuggler and they all laughed.

They started moving down the vent and soon found themselves in a small room that someone had decided to make a home out of. In the middle of the floor was a dead body. He had been a Spider Splicer judging from the hooks he carried. He had been badly wounded and had been trying to crawl to the First Aid Kit on his makeshift bed, but hadn't made it. The light they had seen was a lamp sitting on a few crates the splicers evidently had used a as a table. Also on the table were a thermos of old coffee, three tins of rations, a beat up record player with some records and ledger with the work "Journal" carved into the cover with something sharp.

They could hear angry voices from down in the Metro. Something about a problem with the Sphere.

"Guess we're going to be here a few minutes." Booker told her softy.

*Let's see if there is anything useful the journal.*

"Maybe it will have a treasure map in it." He sat down on the bed and tipped the book to the right. That must be so the phantom Elizabeth could read it easier.

January 7

Apartment burned out, lost everything. Can't find that idiot Maxwell. Must have been in the room when the fire started. He probably started it.

January 9

Found a hole in the wall above the Metro. Glad I spliced up now, never would have found this place before. It's not much, but it's close to work. Only have to worry another wall crawler might find it.

January 13

ATLAS! First this stupid war destroys my apartment, now he has people all over the Bounty. They took over Beggarman's, so I'm out of a job now. Why can't they just leave me alone?

January 27

Head's hurting, hard to think sometimes. Rapture Security attacked again today. I tried to escape with them, but they shot at me! Why? Why is everyone against me?

February 3

Got one of the bandits alone today. He died too fast. Atlas, I'm gonna to gut you just like I did your man.

February 6

Security attack again. They won this time. Damn bandits fell back to Pier 2. I need some Adam and bad. Starting to have dreams about it.

February 19

Head hurts all time now. Tried to get some Adam. A security goon shot me, but I taught him a lesson. Gutted him just like the bandit. Don't mess with Mike Swanson. And I'll do all his friends if they mess with me.

*Guess there's no treasure map in this one.* It was starting to get dark for her. *Guess it's nap time for me.* Booker said something but she couldn't make out what it was.

She woke quickly, but not badly. It didn't feel as if she had slept that long. Maybe she was starting to grow out of needing afternoon naps. Booker was sitting on the table looking at the back of one of the records. He must be thinking Elizabeth was asleep on the bed.

*I'm awake now Booker.*

"Huh. You must really like that song."

*Song? What song.*

"The song you've been humming. You don't remember?"

*No, I don't. How did it go?*

Booker hummed something for about a minute.

She'd been humming THAT song?! Why would she be humming "La Vie En Rose"?

Then she knew.

A fool! She had been a FOOL! They had been_ so close_. She hadn't been humming it, Anna was! It made sense now.

She knew where Anna was.

-Booker-

Elizabeth had stopped talking, she just stared ahead, lost in thought.

"I know where Anna is." she suddenly said.

He blinked in surprise. How did...? "Where?"

She looked at him, a very serious expression on her face. "Fort Frolic. Anna's in Fort Frolic."

"But we were... We missed her." Shock and shame hit him. "I missed her."

"We weren't looking for her. We were escorting Mayhew back."

"Why would she be there?"

"Sally."

It took a moment to remember. "The Little…?"

"The Little Sister You saved. Anna probably went there to try and help her."

That made sense. Anna wants to help people. "So let's get back to Fort Frolic then." He started moving to the vent.

"Is it safe?"

"Yeah, Ryan's people left a few minutes ago."

He used the freight hook to get down and Elizabeth followed moments later. They headed back to Prosperity Way. After that, Fortune Avenue, the Blue Ascot and Tantalus Place. Should only take them an hour or so if they didn't run into problems.

One splicer on the Way, an Eve Addict, attacked him with bees. A few burst from the Tommy Gun ended that problem. The bees couldn't get through his Shield, so he just kept on going until the Plasmid's effect ran out. Elizabeth made sure to keep her distance from him until the bees vanished. The few other splicers around either ignored them or may sure to stay out of their way.

When they neared Tantalus Place they heard sounds of combat. He didn't slow down though, needed to get to Fort Frolic now.

"Booker, you don't have to get to Anna just this minute."

He glanced over his shoulder to look at her. She seemed worried. "She's not safe."

He didn't want to argue right now. His head didn't feel…right. It was like part of him was yelling that something was wrong with him. What could be wrong with him?

"And running into the middle of a battle and getting yourself killed isn't going to help her."

He took a breath. She was right. Running into a firefight wasn't the smartest thing to do.

"She'll be fine. The Big Daddies will protect her until you get there."

"Just like they protected Sally and the girl in the Farmer's Market?"

An unhappy look crossed Elizabeth's face before resolving into a more determined expression. "She's safe for the moment. Believe me."

'How could she know?' he thought. The voice was telling him to believe her. Of course, he believed her. He trusted her with his life and Anna's. The voice started yelling again, but he couldn't understand it, didn't make sense.

Wasn't important.

They started forward, more cautiously this time. The sounds of the fighting faded some, as it was moving. The battle had turned int a rout. One side and won and was pursuing the other. Didn't really matter who won or lost to him, just that they were out of his and Elizabeth's way.

The Transit Hub looked much as it had last time they had been here. A few new dead bodies, a little more damage, by that was all. He didn't like it.

"Thought Fort Frolic was supposed to be closed off."

Elizabeth was looking around for some clue to what was going on. "That's what the newspaper said. If they wanted to block it off, wouldn't this be the best place?"

"Other end of the tunnel would be best, it's good chokepoint. Still, should have somebody out here." From this place you could get to most of Rapture. Close it down and makes it alot harder for the enemy to move around.

As they got closer to the tunnel that led to Fort Frolic they saw a couple of signs saying it was "Closed Until Further Notice".

The Securis door opened and they half ran down the tunnel. At the end of the tunnel they stopped in surprise.

The entrance to Fort Frolic was blocked by tons of ice covered rubble.

"Nothing's ever easy in this goddamn city."

End Chapter 59


	60. Chapter 60

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 60

-Booker-

He and Elizabeth stood a moment looking at the rubble that blocked the entrance to Fort Frolic.

Anna was just on the other side!

He turned to Elizabeth, her mouth was still slightly open in shock. "Is there another way in there?"

Elizabeth blinked and shook her head. "No!" She gestured at the rubble with her left hand, her surprise turning to anger. "This was the only way into Fort Frolic other than the Metro!"

"There's a Metro Station back there."

"It's worth the risk." She agreed.

They went back to the Transit Hub and down the stairs to the Metro Station. There were three spheres docked at the moment. They walked to the first one and climbed inside. The layout was a little different than the Stingray. No manual controls at all on it, just a lever on a pedestal in the center of the sitting area. Just like the one they had used the first time they will come to Rapture.

While Elizabeth took a seat, he pulled on the lever.

"The Metro's locked down, Booker. You need to use the Bypass Plasmid."

"Just thought I'd try."

He hit it with Bypass and tired the lever again. It didn't budge. It wasn't covered in a blue flame either.

Elizabeth was a puzzled, surprised and irritated. "The Plasmid didn't work?"

"Guess have to hack it manually."

"You're going to need some tools. It looks a lot harder to get into than a vending machine."

It took ten minutes to find some tool and open up the pedestal. Then they spent nearly as long again looking around inside of it for something to hack.

"Nothing, nothing to hack." He finally told her angrily.

"The genetic sensor looks like it's a simplified version of what's in the Security Cameras, but there's nothing for memory. Just some wires leading to the... radio." She was lost in thought for a short time before she spoke again.

"Remember the Audio Diary from Henry Wiserman we found here earlier?"

"His tools we're using. He was talking about the genetic locks on the spheres."

"Yes. He was right about the locks being built into the spheres. But the important thing is that the genetic sensor is hooked into the same radio the Metro Bathyspheres use for guidance."

"These things are radio controlled?" If they could be controlled remotely, Ryan could order one to destroy itself.

"Not exactly. The spheres use radio waves to determine their location and use a preprogramed set of instructions to move from one Metro Station to another. The genetic sensor is part of that same system."

"So the same place that's sending out those radio signals, also unlocks the spheres."

"Yes. We just have to get to it. Once there, you hit the system with the Bypass Plasmid and you will able to use every Bathysphere in Rapture Metro."

"Where is this place?"

"The Hermes Complex. It's to the north of here, but not that far."

"Ever been there?"

"No, but I read about it."

They went quickly out the tram tunnel heading north.

This tunnel had seen a lot of fighting. Tram cars overturned, destroyed barricades, the occasional dead body. A surprising amount of ammunition had been left behind, not that he needed much at the moment. Fighting had been at least several days ago, probably closer to a week.

"There it is." Elizabeth said as she pointed at something ahead of them and to the left. Part of him said she couldn't do that. It clawed at his mind for a moment before fading. It never went totally away though, kept saying there was something wrong.

"Which one?"

"It has the green and red blinking lights."

That one. Fairly big place. Must be better than thirty five stores tall.

"Any idea where this control system is?"

"No, but it shouldn't be too difficult to find."

That was optimistic of her. "Why should it be easy to find?"

"The system that controls the spheres is going to be fairly large and complex. They should keep it near the transmitters that send out the signal."

"Best place for aerials would be up top. Transmitters and controls should be up there also."

"Security's probably going to be tight." She looked a little worried now.

"Deal with it when we get there."

She gave him slightly unhappy look. "Shooting your way in is probably not the best idea."

"Would like to avoid that. Causing a ruckus might attract Ryan's eye."

"So what are you planning on doing?" She crossed her arms and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, sure we'll figure something out when we get there." He smiled and pretended to act confident.

Elizabeth didn't buy it for a moment. "That seems to be the usual plan for us DeWitt's."

"You had a plan to get Atlas…out of Fontaine's.. didn't you?" Part of him started yelling again, but he pushed it aside with some effort.

"I didn't remember that I had a plan." She sighed. "Seems the only plans that work are the ones we don't remember."

She didn't sound all that happy. Best drop it. And here was an excuse, an Audio Diary sitting near a burned out tram car.

_Margret Blackwell: Losing Faith_

_February 27, 1959_

_I was happy to join up with Atlas to take down Ryan. But it's been two months. People dying, the blood. We really haven't changed anything. Ryan's still running Rapture, isn't he? And looking back things weren't that bad were they? The announcements I hear on the public address system, they seem to make more sense to me now. Why keep fighting?_

"Seems some of Atlas's people aren't as enthusiastic as they used to be." Elizabeth remarked.

"Sometimes when you get something, it's not what you thought it would be."

"Don't I know it!" She paused and looked at him a moment. "Sometimes, they can be better."

Five minutes on, they heard gunfire and the roar of a Big Daddy. The fight was just around the next bend in the tunnel. Couple moments later a splicer in a Rapture Security uniform came running around the corner.

"Run for you lives!" he screamed.

Elizabeth started moving towards the tunnel wall for cover. "Something's wrong."

She was right, that fight didn't sound right. That Daddy didn't sound right when it roared. He couldn't say how, but it did. But if they stayed out of its way, it shouldn't bother them.

An explosion tossed a dead splicer around the corner. The Security man was running for a small shack with a Health Dispenser on it. He was almost to it when a Rosie came around the corner. The Daddy immediately opened fire on the splicer with a rivet gun and killed him.

The Rosie was some ways away, so wasn't going to bother them. He got out the Research Camera. Then he noticed the portholes on the Rosie's helmet were still red.

"Look out!" Elizabeth yelled as the Big Daddy swung its gun to cover him.

He dodged when the Rosie opened fire, but still took a hit. He quickly brought up Possession. Had worked on that Rosie down in The Blue Ascot, should work on this one. He sent the green fairy at the Big Daddy and bit back a curse as it broke apart when it hit. Immune. Ryan must be upgrading the Big Daddies.

Needed cover, need time to get there. He fired off lightning from the Grabber and ran for the shack with the Health Dispenser on it. Freeze the Daddy. As he switched out the napalm he heard the Rosie stomp towards the shack.

'What the hell was wrong with it?'

Let it get closer, closer. NOW! He jumped out from behind the shack firing the Chemical Thrower. Before the Rosie could react, it was encased in ice. He held the trigger down and made sure it was heavily coated.

He was about to call for Elizabeth so they could get around the bend of the tunnel and away from the Rosie before it melted, but she was already there waiting for him. A part of his mind started yelling again, but he pushed it aside. He ran after her, reloading as he did.

He wasn't even half way before the Big Daddy broke free.

He turned back and let loose with the liquid nitrogen again, re-freezing the Rosie. Used up most of his ammo doing it. If the Daddy came after them again, he would have to kill it.

He sprinted up to the bend and around. Maybe if they were out of sight the Rosie it would forget about them.

Little chance of that.

Elizabeth pointed to a tram station ahead of them. "There. That should take us to the Hermes Complex." They were close enough now that he had to look up to see the top of the building. Not far now.

As they continued towards the station, he noticed the area around them. Fighting had been heavy here at one point. Bad enough to damage the tunnel and he splashed through water half a foot deep at one point. Atlas must have made a hard push for control of the Metro.

Elizabeth slowed to look at one of the dead. Another man in a Security uniform. "This doesn't make any sense."

"What?"

"These were Ryan's people." She said as she looked around. "Why would they attack a Little Sister?"

"Don't see a Little Sister."

"There isn't?" A concerned look crossed her face. "We should get to the station quickly and stay out of that Rosie's sight."

Behind him there was a roar of anger from the Big Daddy.

"Take it something's wrong with that Rosie." He half asked as he entered the station. Hopefully, the big guy would lose interest soon. The station itself was heavily damaged from fighting. A hole torn in the floor exposed pipes, bullet holes everywhere, fires still smoldered in several places, furniture had been piled up to form a barricade. Looked recent.

_Atlas is a friend of the Parasite. Don't be a friend of Atlas. _

"Yes, there is. I think he's gone mad and is attacking anything he sees."

There was a counter that might have sold newspapers and magazines near the Securis door heading out. "There."

They both crouched down out of sight and he switched the Tommy Gun to armor piercing rounds and replaced the dead battery in the Grabber. Moments later the Daddies heavy footsteps came up to the entrance of the station and stopped. Elizabeth wasn't scared, but seemed concerned.

The red light from the Rosie's porthole played over the room like a searchlight. If the Big Daddy took one step into the station, he would have to open fire.

But the Daddy didn't move, it stood at the station's entrance and looked around for a few moments before turning and stomped back the way it came. They waited until the heavy footfalls faded before standing up.

"Guess you're right about attacking everything." There was a Little Sister Vent here and it was badly damaged. Looked like the Rosie had put at least a couple dozen rivets into it.

Elizabeth didn't seem worried about the implications. "I think the Little Sisters will know to avoid that Big Daddy. They'll be safe from him."

"Let's not wait around for it to come back."

He went to the Securis Door, but stopped as he got closer. There was water in front of the door and more water was coming in from around the edges.

Elizabeth stood with her hands on her hips and looked at the door with a sour expression. "I had been wondering why there hadn't been anyone guarding this place."

"Musta blown the tunnel to keep Atlas's people out. There another way in there?"

"There's another stop further down that goes to the William Apartments. There might be a way to get to the Hermes Complex from there."

The arrived at William Apartments a short time later. It wasn't really a station, just an open arch with small lobby like area and a Securis door on the other end. The place had seen some heavy fighting not that long ago. Someone had set defenses in the lobby against attackers coming from the tram tunnel. There where sandbags and an upright barricade on wheels with a firing port. But the defenses hadn't held and all that remained now were the dead.

He noticed a crude wooded sign someone had put up.

"The Warren's? That doesn't sound very promising." Elizabeth commented.

"Take it you've not been here before."

"No, I don't even remember the tram stopping here."

"Probably not the richest place then."

"No. It looks like these poor fools sided with Atlas." She said as she pointed to a bullet riddled "Who is Atlas?" poster.

"Don't think many left alive here that do now."

Sitting beside one of the corpses was an Audio Diary.

_Ronnie Marshal: Send Help_

_March 1, 1959_

_Atlas, please, send some help. We lost too many people trying to break into Hermes last week and now Ryan has us cut off. We drove off two attacks yesterday and people are starting to desert. Lost two just this morning. If Ryan attacks again, we're dead. Sending this by runner since I haven't been able to get you on the radio. (sounds of gunfire) No! Terry! Get back here!_

"Get the idea that Atlas left these people to die."

Elizabeth's voice was filled with disgust. "After what he did to me, that's no surprise at all. The man only sees other people as things to be used."

'What did Atlas do to her?' He thought he should know of a moment. Another part of him yelled, no, screamed that something was wrong him and Elizabeth wasn't real. Started to hurt his head. He tried to get rid the voice, but it just retreated. It was still there saying that something was wrong with him.

He shook his head slightly to clear it. "Don't think there's a way into Hermes from here. If there was, Atlas's people would have used it."

"I'm sure one of the other tram lines ran directly to Hermes."

"How can we get to this other tram tunnel?"

Metropolis Central Terminal. Most people call it "The Hub". It's the center of the Tram Network."

They started heading north to the Hub.

-Elizabeth-

They had seen only a half dozen splicers since they left the William Apartments and none had been hostile towards them. One had walked around seemingly confused and another one had been playing in a puddle like he was a child. She wondered a moment how long it would be before another splicer killed them.

Probably not very long.

As they got closer to the terminal they could see signs of heavy fighting. Inside a bullet riddled newsstand they found some Liquid Nitrogen for the Chemical Thrower. A short distance further on they found a crossbow like the one they had seen in Fort Frolic behind a pile of sandbags. Her father picked it up and took a closer look at it before putting it down.

*You don't want it?*

"Be nice to have, but with all the rest I'm carrying, would slow me down too much."

They continued walking and they found more signs of fighting and a few corpses that had been dead several days. The lack of current fighting was starting to trouble her. She was glad Booker wouldn't have to fight his way through Ryan's and Atlas's people, but it still felt wrong.

_Don't believe the lies of the Atlas and his bandits. Keep Rapture free!_

The Terminal was soon in view and Booker stopped to look at it a moment. "Looks bit like an art deco copy of Grand Central."

It didn't look much like the Grand Central Depot in Columbia to her. *What do you mean?*

"Sorry, Grand Central in New York City. This place's a lot smaller though."

"The Terminal isn't exactly small Booker."

"Doubt it has room for a hundred train tracks." Her father started walking again and drew his autopistol. "Why they call it the Hub?"

*There's a big map of the tram system that shows where the cars are in real time. The tram tracks look like spokes on a wheel.*

"And at the center is the hub."

*Yes. Not the most imaginative nickname, but most use it.*

Booker started to the telescopic sight on the autopistol to get a little better look at the Terminal. "Don't suppose many tram cars are working now."

*No, I don't expect they would be.* Through the scope they could see barricades set up at the mouth of the tunnel ahead. There didn't seem to be anyone manning them at the moment. Her father lowered the pistol.

"Huh! Not what I expected."

*And what did you expect?*

"Lot more fighting. This Hub is a major chokepoint. Even Atlas should be able to figure that out."

*Whoever controls it would be able to move their troops around more easily.* The feeling that something about the war had changed was getting stronger.

As they got closer to the Terminal the number of splicers they saw increased. A Thugish splicer attacked them with a wrench. Booker was forced to use the Air Grabber and break his neck. A nearby splicer saw what happened and started laughing like it was the funniest thing he ever saw.

A short distance on they found three dead bodies behind a pile of sandbags along the tunnel wall. Close by were three dead splicers. Something about the scene made Booker take a closer look at it.

"Last stand." He muttered half to himself.

*A last stand?*

"These people were firing in every direction."

*They must have killed the three splicers before someone else got them.* Then she noticed something different about the dead. *Booker, can you take a closer look at the body on the left a moment?*

He obliged by turning over the dead man with his foot. "Something wrong?" There was an Audio Diary under the body which her father picked up.

*Not wrong, odd. All three of these were unspliced.*

"Way they're dressed, they were likely Atlas's."

*So are the ones they killed. A revolt against Atlas?* That didn't make sense.

"Maybe this can tell us." Booker said before playing the Audio Diary. They continued on towards the Terminal as they listened to it.

_Peter Sterns: Turnaround_

_Date: March 2, 1959_

_Last week we were advancing, we had finally taken the Hub. People were feeling good. Then everything fell apart. People started arguing with each other. Started leaving, desertin'. Then Ryan attacked and pushed us out of the Hub in two hours! We had fought for an entire week to take it! Two days ago Marge attacked Sammy calling him bandit. We had to kill her before it spread. It's like they don't want to fight anymore. What the hell is going on? _

"Atlas seems to be losing." There was a slight puzzled tone in his voice.

*This suddenly?*

"Morale can be a tricky thing, especially with irregulars. Something small can set things off."

*You don't believe that.*

He gave a small sigh. "No. Morale should have gone up when Atlas's people took the Hub."

*Then something else is going on.*

"Don't care. If it makes it easier to get to Hermes and then Fort Frolic…"

*Then it's better for us.*

As they got closer to the Terminal signs of past combat grew more evident. Part of the tram tracks had been ripped up for some reason and ten foot wide crater was all that was left of the Rapture Tribune newsstand. One of the support beams from the roof had fallen and the water leaking from above had created a small shallow lake. The entrance to the Terminal was riddled with hundreds of bullets and pieces of the stonework had been dislodged by explosions. The barricades in front didn't look much better. There were a few splicers around, but none in a Rapture Security uniform.

Her father climbed over the barricade and Bypassed a turret that evidently was the only thing left to guard this entrance. After all that fighting over this place and Ryan seems to have all but abandoned it. It didn't make sense. Shortly they were on the platform. The Terminal had a similar interior style to Fontaine's Department Store. Must have been designed by the same person. Booker looked around for the tram tunnel they needed, but found only walls.

*We will have to go up to the Terminal's main floor and then back down again to get to the other tram lines.*

Booker just "hrrumphed" and started for the wide marble stairway leading up.

Before he got there, a pair of splicers came down them. Both wore expansive suites and one had a Security Bot following him. Probably a Controller. The other had small bolts of electricity flowing over him, certainly one of the new style Jockey's. They spotted Booker and the Jockey called out.

"Hey you! We want to talk to ya!"

'At least they aren't attacking.'

Both splicers swaggered up to her father who hadn't moved. But she had seen his eyes do a quick, but thorough, inventory of the area, including several lighting sconces in good position for the Air Grabber.

"What do you want, friend?" Booker asked as the two splicers got closer.

The Jockey got angry. "I ask the questions here!" To emphasis the point he brought up both his hands and electricity flowed between them.

The Controller stepped up. "Calm down Mike. I'm sure he didn't mean anything." He turned to Booker and smiled. It reminded her of a shark. "Sorry about that. My friend has a bit of a short temper." She knew this was all an act. A well rehearsed one at that.

"We'd just like to know what you're doing here." the Controller asked in a friendly tone.

"Got some business down by Hermes."

"He lying!" Mike spat. "Let me give him a jolt. That'll make him talk." From his expression, it was clear it was no act that he liked electrocuting people.

"Hey buddy, you better tell the truth. Mike here don't like liars much. So why're you here? What's your name."

"Name's Walter DeVille. And as I said already told you I got some business down by Hermes Complex."

"Let me loosen his tongue Archie!"

Archie pretended to be disappointed. "If you're not going to start tell'in the truth, I don't think I keep Mike from doing something you're going to regret. Now again, what are you doing here?"

"Already told you. Going down near Hermes." her father told the two politely. But she heard the undertone in his voice that these two fools missed. Booker was ready to kill both of them the moment they tried something.

"Had enough of you bullshit buddy!" Mike yelled as he raised his hand to fire off a bolt of electricity.

Her father was faster. One step and he was flying through the air to a lighting sconce. Below them was the sharp crack of an Electo Bolt Plasmid.

Booker hung from the lighting fixture a moment to orient himself as the two splicer tried to figure out what happening. Then Booker dismounted to strike the Controller. The splicer staggered back and she was slightly surprised he still lived. Booker hit him again with the Air Grabber as Mike the Jockey swore in surprise. The Security Bot added its own shrill cry to the mix.

This time the Controller burst into flame. He screamed for a moment then collapsed. Booker turned to face the Jockey who had caught on fire as well because of the Firebug Gear. But being on fire wasn't enough to stop him and he starter to fire bolts of electricity at Booker.

Booker took a hit and everything turned to static. It didn't last long and when she could see and hear again her father was walking up the stairs as he put away his camera.

"Don't have time for a Mutt and Jeff routine." he grumbled.

'Mutt and who?' Later. She wanted to ask what happened with the Jockey, but was afraid of what it would trigger.

Soon they were in the Main Hall. Before it had been polished marble, glittering metals and stylized figures of men and women, massive chandeliers and small stores in every corner. Now it all lay in ruins. Many of the stores had been consumed by flames, several of the chandeliers had fallen and damage from weapons fire was everywhere.

She mentally shook her head. Cities like Columbia and Rapture could create so much. But in doing so they committed crime after crime and those crimes always came back in some way to destroy them.

"Which way." her father asked.

*Over to the left, the E Line.*

They headed to the left through the ruins. They saw a number of splicers, but few took notice of Booker and none attacked.

At one point Booker noticed a pair of figures in a damaged clothing store watching him. He took a closer look and saw they were a pair of mannequins. A male and female in tan coats.

Just for a moment though she could have sworn that the mannequins had red hair. 'Little chance of those two showing up again.'

A Bouncer and his charge came walking around the corner of the information booth heading directly for them. While researching them, Booker moved over to the side to stand by a bench. As the pair slowly stomped past they noticed an Audio Diary.

_Alicia Schapermeier: Something In the Air_

_February 26, 1959_

_Overheard some of Ryan's security goons talkin'. They said that the war was going to be over soon. That whatever they put in the air was starting to work. Paraphonys or something like dat. One of the bastards noticed me and smacked me around! Told me I shouldn't be eve dropping. I'm just a grease monkey doin' my job, he got no right to treat me like that! If it weren't for me they wouldn't be able to ride around in the spheres like big shots._

"Paraphonys?" Booker asked with a puzzled tone. She wasn't sure if he was thinking out loud or asking her about them.

*I have no idea what she's talking about. But there is something odd going on and it seems Ryan's behind it.*

They found the staircase leading down to the E Line and soon left the Terminal behind. Once out into the tunnel, they noticed that there was much less damage here than in the other tunnel's. The lack of fighting might be a good sign that Atlas hadn't attacked Hermes from this direction and the entrance would still be open.

On the way to Hermes they were attacked twice by renegade splicers. The first was a Thugish and the second, a Leadhead with an EVE Addict. The Thugish fell after only a pair of short burst from the Tommy Gun. The Research Camera was proving to be very helpful.

In the second attack, after the Leadhead had died, the injured EVE Addict faded to nothing. His hand had glowed in a familiar way as he vanished. Moments later there were splashes in a puddle further down the tunnel.

*He's using the Peeping Tom Plasmid. He probably used up most of his EVE running away.* she explained.

"Can always get more EVE." Her father said cautiously. A moment later the splicer faded back into view, still running away. "Doesn't seem as good as Houdini."

*It does use a lot of EVE, but the ability to look through walls is rather handy.*

"Guess it might."

They continued on their way and soon Hermes Complex was towering above them. Booker moved more slowly as they got closer to Hermes, looking for traps and security systems.

They rounded relatively undamaged tram car and saw the tram station for Hermes. The station looked intact and there were three figures standing in front of it. Two of them wore Ryan Security uniforms and the last a Rapture Security one. Two had Tommy Guns and the last a Grenade Launcher. Besides the guards there were a pair of turrets and they could see the red light of a Security Camera from deeper in the station.

"Might be a little harder than I thought." Booker admitted.

End Chapter 60


	61. Chapter 61

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 61

-Elizabeth-

Getting into Hermes Complex was going to be a little harder than even she had expected. She was sure her father could win his way inside. The problem was doing so with an alarm being raised.

Her father stood against the tram car and the Gear did its best to make him blend in. He drew his autopistol and slowly raised it up to get a better view through its scope. All three of the guards were splicers in addition to being heavily armed.

*Are you going to try and talk your way past?* she asked.

"Them don't seem to be the sort to be grifted that easily." he answered softly as he shifted his view a little right and focused on something inside the station. It was a corpse with a rope around her neck. A sign on her chest said "Collaborator".

*So it's ether we shoot our way in here or we find another way in.*

"Any other way in is likely as well guarded as this." Booker focused in on the turrets a moment. "Think they would be a little less likely to raise the alarm if a turret malfunctioned?"

*You mean if you hacked a turret. Are you going to hack both of them.*

"Hm. Rather not use a dart if I don't have to."

*Possession should still work.*

"Humph. Might be the only use for it now." He sounded a little amused by that.

*And what's funny.*

"Fink made Possession to work on machines, not people."

*And now you're back to using it as it was intended.*

Booker switched over to the Hack Tool and lined up on the turret on the right hand side. The turrets where in front of the guards so he waited until all three guards were looking away from the turret when he fired the dart.

The Hack Tool didn't make a sound when it fired, the Sound of Silence Gear at work. The dart did make an audible "thunk" when it hit, but Booker had placed the dart on the turret where it couldn't be seen from behind. The closest guard, the one with the grenade launcher, looked at the turret but turned away after a moment.

It took several seconds to hack the turret remotely. A needle moves back and forth on a small display and Booker needed to "stop" the needle one a green or blue colored zone. Apparently landing on a red zone causes Security Bots to be summoned.

Booker's hack was successful and the turret turned and started firing. The three splicers were surprised and reacted slowly. As Booker switched to his autopistol he launched Possession at the other turret.

The splicer with the grenade launcher only managed to fire once before the turret killed him. The Possessed turret opened fire on of the two remaining splicers who were staggered from multiple hits and the second one fell. The hacked turret blew up as the last splicer's fire took its toll. He swung around to fire on the remaining turret, but it killed him before he could fire.

Before the Possession wore off on the last turret her father hit it with the Bypass Plasmid.

*You're not going to hack it?*

"Let them wonder what happened."

*And you're going to just leave the bodies.*

"Hiding them would let them know someone was here."

*Keeping them unsure of what really happened.*

"Should buy a little time at least."

Booker took a moment to switch Gears and then researched the dead splicers. When he was done they waited at the corner of the archway for the Security Camera to be pointed away from them. Then he leaned around the corner and hit it with Bypass and quickly got back under cover as it swung back in their direction.

Booker wasn't letting the camera see him despite it being Bypassed. He wanted to make sure there was no record of his being there. It might also help convince someone that it had been a turret malfunction that killed the guards.

After all, they didn't see anyone come into the building.

When it was safe, Booker sprinted past the camera and into the station. This station was large, but much plainer than most of the others they had been in. There were three bodies hanging from ropes along the right wall. All of them had a sign proclaiming them to be a collaborator nailed on them. She got the impression they had still been alive when the nails had been pounded in. There were chairs and benches along the walls, some overgrown planters and a couple empty newspaper machines, but little else. She wondered a moment who was watering the plants.

"Looks like this is where the workers come in."

They headed for the large doors at the other end of the room. It wasn't even a Securis door. She still couldn't believe the lack of basic safety system in Rapture. If it wasn't for the Big Daddies she doubted that anything will be left of Rapture when they arrived in 1960.

The door opened and they found themselves facing a security booth. It wasn't occupied and they headed down the corridor past rows of time cards and a pair of time clocks. Booker stopped a moment to look how many people were punched in. Only eighteen.

"Not many here." her father observed.

*There have to be some people to maintain the Metro's spheres.*

"Surprised it's that many actually. Ryan probably has to pay a lot."

*Or he's paying them with ADAM.*

"Might be."

While things here were a little un-kept, there little if any damage from fighting. They passed two locker rooms, one for each gender. Next they passed by a large repair bay for spheres. It was easily twice the size as the one down in Fontaine's, but with much less decoration. Many of the cradles were occupied by a sphere, but there was no work being done.

They passed a metal working shop and there was an Audio Diary on a workbench near the door. After making sure no one was in the room Booker picked it up and played it.

_Andrew Ryan: Change of Administration_

_February 25, 1959_

_I assure you Mr. Austen, I gave this matter my utmost consideration before I came to my decision. Restricting the Metro to only those I trust is the only way to isolate Atlas and his bandits. I am aware of the losses that your company will incur, but Rapture is at War and sacrifices must be made. You have cooperated with the Council in the past and so I am willing to overlook your recent outbursts. However, I believe that it is time for you to… retire before things become more unpleasant for you. _

*I wonder if Austen took Ryan's "suggestion" to retire?*

"Probably "retired" one way or another."

Continuing on, they found workshops, storage rooms, officers and a break room with a Circus of Values. Booker bought some coffee and pep bars to replenish his EVE levels while he had the chance. In one of the workshops they found a pair of hack darts and enough parts to build another pair of Autohack Tools. They had to avoid several workers by ducking into side rooms or retreating down a nearby corridor, but that was much preferable to killing them.

Finally they entered Hermes Major, the tallest portion of the complex. This part of the complex was offices of different kinds. Accounting, sales, scheduling and a large electronics shop. There were even fewer people here than in the repair bays. Still, to keep from attracting attention they didn't talk unless there was good reason.

They made their way to the main lobby of the building to get to the elevators. Climbing to the top of a building as tall as this one would exhaust even Booker. The lobby wasn't as large or grandiose as many of the others they had been in. The Art Deco styling was fairly muted and it tended to feel more practical. There had been some fighting here, but the damage was fairly minor.

Her father looked out a window near the Securis Door and saw that little remained of the tunnel that had connected the building to the tram station where they had hidden from the rogue Big Daddy.

"Some of Atlas's people made it in here…"

*And that's when the tunnel was destroyed. There must have been a lot of people in the tunnel when it happened.* 'The poor fools.'

"Became a mop up operation for Ryan after that."

*Let's take a look at the directory and see if we can find where we need to go.*

It only took a few moments to figure out what floor they needed. She noticed that Austen had his office on the top of the building near the "Bathysphere Network Control Center". The whole floor was listed as "restricted". They both thought Security was going to be tighter on that floor so they would take the elevator up to a lower floor then use the stairs for the last leg.

It turned out that they couldn't have used the elevator anyway. Next to the button for the floor they wanted there was a keyhole. In order to for the elevator to go to the top floors the elevator would need to be unlocked with a key. Her father not asking if she could pick the lock hinted at how sick he was.

The elevator trip went smoothly and they exited the elevator on the floor that housed Austen Bathysphere's Legal Department. The floor was empty of people and looked to have been that way for some time. They quickly found the stairs leading up, but when they got to the top of the they found the door had a number lock on it. The housing for it was reinforced so Booker couldn't open it up to try hacking it. Bypass was of no use and Possession failed as well.

"There Has to be a way to open this." he growled as he started to look around for something anything that could be of help.

*Wait, over there.*

"See something?"

*Next to the pipes.* There was something written on the wall high up next to the pipe. You could only see it if you were standing at the door.

"Numbers, the door code?"

*I can't think of any other reason for the number to be there.*

"Kinda defeats the purpose."

*Only if the code works.*

Booker punched in the number 7086 and the door opened.

They cautiously moved into the corridor, but there didn't seem to additional security measures other than the lock on the door.

*A little overconfident about their locks, aren't they?*

"Most are." Booker was looking around carefully. The corridor was nearly bare and looked practically brand new, even if some of the lights were out. Twenty feet down it ran into a larger corridor. "Don't think many use this door."

*So they put a lock on the door and forgot about it?*

"Elevator's lot more convenient."

*I wonder who wrote the code up there then.*

"Probably someone who worked here, but didn't want to be seen using the elevator."

*Why would someone do that?*

"Maybe they were late to work and didn't want to get caught."

That sounded like a joke, but her father seemed serious about it.

The next corridor look more heavily traveled and they decided to go to the right. The passed a few locked office doors, but nothing pointed them towards the control center they wanted. The austerity of this area was rather a surprise. It look like most of the decorations were here came with the building and Austen didn't add anything more than a few pictures of bathyspheres on the walls. In Rapture if you were rich, you flaunted it. Not here though.

They found the elevator, but there was a Security Camera watching it. Booker Bypassed the camera, but didn't get close enough to be seen by it. Still worried someone could be watching the camera's feed. They decided to take a side corridor and go around it.

They ended up in a large reception area. Some comfortable looking chairs, a few tables and two small planters filled with plants that looked as if they could use some water. A sign said it was the office of B. Austen. She was getting that feeling again, as if she had been here before. It was getting irritating as she didn't remember it.

'How much did Elizabeth do that I don't remember?'

*Booker I think we should take a quick look around here. There might be something important here.*

"If you say." There wasn't much in the reception area other than some money and a pep bar. As her father moved to Austen's office the feeling she had been here before grew a little stronger.

Austen's office was big and had a large window looking out over Rapture. Along one wall was a bookcase overflowing with books, technical manuals and magazines. It looked like he had ever copy of any science related magazine ever published in Rapture.

The other wall had charts, blueprints and technical data. Austen seemed to have done a great deal of research into all things mechanical and underwater. He wouldn't be doing any more though. Seated behind a huge wood desk was Austen himself, slumped to one side and a large hole in his temple.

As Booker got closer to the desk they could see a pistol laying on it.

"Guess that's one way to retire."

Why was the pistol on the desk? And Austen's hand was nowhere near it. *I don't think that he shot himself.*

"Probably not."

A search of the desk turned up a flask of whiskey, a heavy revolver and an Audio Diary.

_Bart Austen: Go To Hell _

_February 26, 1959_

_Listen here Ryan, I'll retire when I damn well feel like it! I built this company up from scratch and you're not going to take it away from me! I'll be in your office first thing tomorrow morning and we are going to hash this out man to man! You understand me Ryan? Man. To. Man!_

*That doesn't sound much like a man about to kill himself.*

"No it doesn't."

Austen himself had a key, 123 dollars and three Camellia Cigars.

Searching the rest of the room they found a well stocked bar hidden in a wall panel and near it was a safe. Rather than try to hack it, Booker used an Auto Hack tool. Inside was a small collection of gems, 50 gold coins and a First Aid Kit. Booker left the coins behind saying they would make too much noise. Probably weren't all that easy either to carry either.

When Booker was done looking over the contents of the safe he looked to his left. "So anything interesting over there?"

*Uh, no. Nothing.* She hoped they didn't miss something important because Booker thought she was searching with him. When he was done with the safe, Booker searched a couple of the filing cabinets. All he found were papers and collections of "The Farmer's Daughter" and "Lusts" magazines.

"Huh. Probably hiding them from his wife." Booker told her.

They left the office and backtracked to the stairway. A few minutes later they found a door with the sign "Bathysphere Network Control Center". Unfortunately, there was a Security Camera watching the corridor and the door had a heavy lock on it.

This camera must have was part of the same system as the one covering the elevator as it was already burning with blue fire. Booker's Bypass Plasmid must have "infected" a large portion of the security system then. However if someone were still to watch the camera feed they could still see Booker.

Another problem was is they didn't know if the key they got from Austen would work. If her father got to the door and the key didn't work the camera would certainly see him.

Booker watched the camera a few moments to get its timing down then said "On three, one, two, Three!" When he said three, he sprinted to the door and quickly tired the key. The door slid open and he dashed thorough just as the camera swung in their direction.

"No alarms yet." Booker said hopefully as he looked around.

This area looked much like the reception area to Austen's office in its lack of extravagance. There was a little more decoration in the form of paintings of different bathyspheres and Metro Stations, but it still seemed rather plain. Over the doors at the other end of the room were several windows. Off to the right was an unoccupied security booth, inside was a TV showing the view from the camera outside. Sitting on a table in the left corner was an Audio Diary. The man's voice was an odd combination of accents. Chinese and English.

_Wu Zhou: Overtime_

_February 2, 1959_

_Mr. Austen fired all the splicers today. Every single one. Cannot say I blame him. The splicers have been picking fights, not doing their work and it was getting worse all the time. I heard that one splicer killed a couple people and then herself. Heard rumors of sabotage. Not sad to see them go, but we must be down to only 20% of our staff now. How are we going to keep the Metro running with so few people? (Sigh) Going to be getting a lot of overtime. _

There was nothing more that looked useful here and they continued on through the far set doors. The doors opened up to a wide corridor with a smaller corridor going off to the right. The corridor on the right led to a flight of stairs going up. A sign on the wall said that up the stairs was the "Alistair Williams Memorial Conference Room".

"Huh. Interesting way to memorialize someone."

*In Rapture, it's a compliment to have something business related named after you. Even a conference room.*

They continued on down the main corridor until the came to a large octagonal room. In the center of the room was a small fountain surrounded by plants. There were two doors here one on the opposite side of the room and another smaller one to the right.

Booker tried the door on the right first. It turned out to be filled with pipes, conduit and wires. In the back was a mummified corpse holding a pistol trained on the door. There was no blood and no obvious wounds. It looked like he had crawled in here and just, died. Even in death though, the man's face showed absolute terror.

Beside him were a Gear and a bag. The Gear was called Incinerator. Killing with excessive damage causes an explosion that damages nearby enemies. In the bag were some clothes and eleven dollars.

"Scared to death." he concluded looking at the corpse.

*I've read about that in one of my medical books, but it didn't give much credit to such claims.*

"Huh. Once saw someone's heart give out from fear."

*Hmm. Stress could cause a preexisting condition to manifest. Someone with a bad heart could have a heart attack.* *I wonder what he had so afraid of?*

Booker left the corpse behind and walked to the other doors. "ADAM sickness can make you see things, think they're real, right?"

She wanted to say "Just like you are now." *Yes, it can. You mean this man's imagination created something he was so fearful of, it killed him?*

"Maybe."

The doors opened up onto a "T" shaped corridor twenty feet long. There were two signs on the wall ahead. One pointed right to the "Office of Director A. Millford." The other pointing to the left was for the "Bathysphere Network Control Center".

One more right turn and they stood in front of a set of heavy doors with lock on them. A sign over the doors proclaimed this was the Control Center. From inside they could hear faint noises of computers working.

*So what's the plan?*

"Walk in and hope no one notices. Someone notices, hope I don't have to shoot."

*That's it?*

He sighed. "Not much else to do, is there?"

Booker got out Austen's key and put it in the lock.

-Booker-

The doors to the control room opened easily once they were unlocked. The room beyond was on the large side. Ceiling was 50 foot up, at least a hundred long and maybe sixty wide. The wall on the left was a huge highly detailed map of Rapture with every stop on the Metro shown. There were small lights at each of the stations and a few other lights moving slowly across the city. Must be showing the location of the active spheres in the Metro. There was a large cluster of lights in this buildings and another one a short distance away in the repair bays.

The floor of the room was covered with terminals, desks and chairs. To the right was a balcony twenty feet off the main floor and beyond a window that looked out over the city. A wide staircase ran from the main floor to the balcony. The far wall had a door and was covered with TVs showing views from inside different Metro stations around the city.

There wasn't a soul in the room other than him and Elizabeth.

"Where is everyone?" Elizabeth asked in a surprised voice.

"Not here." was all he could tell her. He didn't understand it any better than she did. He knew something like Rapture's Metro would need people watching over it, but there were none here. "Make it a lot easier to find whatever controls locks on the spheres."

"We better find it before someone comes along."

They tried the door on the opposite side of the room, but it turned out to be full of wires and cables for the TVs.

"The computers must be up on the balcony then." She looked a little worried. What if they computers weren't here?

They climbed the stairs to find more terminals and another door. As they walked to the door they passed a desk with an Audio Diary on it.

_Johann Shultz: Fired!_

_February 27, 1959_

_Ryan fired everyone in Control! Ryan doesn't even own Austen, so why the fuck is he giving orders? I don't care if there's a war on! When that stupid machine he has runnin' the Metro screws up I'm going to sit back and laugh my ass off. And when those bastards they come begging to come back I'm going to get double, no triple my old pay. Just you watch. _

"Guess that explains why nobody's here."

"Not really." She looked a little worried. "There should still be people to maintain whatever computer they have running the Metro now."

He was almost at the door now. "Thought you said that the Metro was already run by a machine."

"It is, but there should still be people maintaining the systems and taking care of problems the computers can't."

The door opened to mid-sized room and in the center of it where two banks of computers looking like the ones they had seen in Fontaine's. Along the walls were more of them. There were three terminals and half a dozen TV monitors.

Elizabeth didn't look very happy. "This can't be it. Can you look at the terminal on that right hand desk?" Why didn't... The voice in his head screamed at him to do what Elizabeth said.

He walked to the terminal in a slight daze. When he got there the voice quieted down, but he knew it was still there. Some..thing..wrong with... What, what could be wrong? Nothing, it was nothing. He looked at the TV screen for several moments as letters and numbers ran across it. He didn't have a clue what they all meant.

"Now I wish I read up more on programing. Can you look at the other terminal?"

He walked over and the same mishmash of number and letters was on it. "As I thought, this computer isn't running the Metro. All the commands are just being run through this system from someplace else. There must be a much more powerful computer sending orders to this one."

"Does it matter?"

Elizabeth paused a moment. "No, it doesn't. The Bypass Plasmid will infect it if they are connected."

"And they are." He brought up the Bypass Plasmid.

He launched the plasmid at the computer banks in the center of the room. When it hit, the computer banks on the walls also caught fire.

"Now to see if that worked."

They made their back the to the control room door. Getting out without being seen by the camera was even harder than getting in. Open the door, lock it and get down the corridor before camera could see them. He thought they pulled it off though.

As they walked back to the stairway down to the floor Elizabeth realized something. "While they didn't see you Booker, they might have seen that the door was open."

"They might have." he had to admit "But that should make them send someone up to see what's happening rather than raise the alarm."

"You hope."

"Heard any alarm yet?"

"No and let's hope it stays that way." "Are we going to use on of the spheres here to go to Fort Frolic?"

"Don't see why not. Directory said the Metro's main terminal is six floors below."

They decided to walk down rather than chance the elevator. When they got arrived on the floor with the Terminal, they had to avoid a couple of splicers and that forced them take the long way around. It was hard for him not to just rush to the Terminal, get in a sphere and to hell with the consequences. But Elizabeth said Anna was safe and getting into a fight they didn't need might cause them to lose more time than if they'd just avoided it.

Still, he wanted to so much to see his daughter. The voice in his head was still talking. He couldn't understand it most of the time and wished it would go away. Was starting to make it head hurt at times.

The Metro's Main Terminal was very different from the Hub. The room itself was round with more than a dozen sphere bays in the center with arrival and departure times listed above them. Along the walls where half a dozen small shops, a Bistro and a Plasmid store. The ceiling was only 50 foot above their heads, no windows and the decorations were much plainer.

There was little damage from fighting here and the only other people were a Little Sister and a Bouncer. As he researched the pair, Elizabeth looked around in almost an approving manner.

"Admiring the design?" he asked as they walked to the spheres.

"It's designed better than most of Rapture. If you're changing from one Metro line to another it's only a short walk. If you need to wait, it's easy to find someplace where you can watch."

"Don't plan on waiting." He told her and started walking towards one of the occupied bays. They climbed into the sphere and he chose the destination of Fort Frolic.

Now they would see if the Bypass Plasmid worked. He pulled the handle and let out his breath as it moved easily. The door of the sphere closed and immediately the craft sank into the dark water. On the way down they could see advertisements for Incinerate!, Accu-Vox and other products. Then the sphere was outside and moving across the city.

"We should be in Fort Frolic shortly. There are two Metro stations, but I'm not sure which one we'll arrive at." Elizabeth told him. Then the lights in the sphere started to flicker.

No! There couldn't be anything wrong with the sphere! They were so close!

It went pitch black in the sphere, he couldn't even see outside through the glass door. 'How could...?'

Then the lights came back up and discovered that the sphere suddenly had two new passengers.

The female was seated on the right with her hands folder in her lap very prim and proper. The male was on the left, his hands resting on his legs and seemed more relaxed.

"What are the Luteces doing here?" Elizabeth blurted out in surprise.

"I told you that he would choose it." The female Lutece said.

"Even though we did warn him." the male responded.

"Warn me of what?" He kept his voice level, no use getting those two mad at him. Not when they were so close to finding Anna.

"He doesn't know." The male said to the other.

"No, I don't believe he does." she responded.

The male looked at Booker. "You chose 77 again."

"77? What are they talking about Booker?"

He glanced at Elizabeth sitting beside him. "Explain later."

Both the Lutece's left eyebrows went up slightly.

This had gone on long enough. "There isn't a raffle here and I didn't choose a baseball with a 77 on it." he told the twins.

"That is true brother."

"But he did choose a *sphere* numbered 77."

He what? "This sphere is numbered 77?" he all but demanded.

"I assure you it is." The one of the right said.

"There was no way of him knowing these craft have numbers." The one on the left argued.

"But that does not change that he did chose 77."

These two. "Wait, where does it say this 77?" At least they could give him some proof.

They both paused a moment. "The number 77 is engraved on several parts inside the control system." the male said.

"Attempting to disassemble the control system while the craft is in transit would be inadvisable. The number is also printed on the hull."

"Below the waterline." The male added.

"I'll take your word on it then." He told them dryly. "So you going to tell me what I "won" this time?"

"Giving you such information might be considered interfering in the experiment..." The female said.

"but the truth is, we don't know." The male finished.

"Constants and Variables." he thought out loud as he glanced at Elizabeth. Her expression was a mixture of irritation and puzzlement.

"That is what makes this experiment so interesting."

The lights started to flicker again and after a moment of total darkness he and Elizabeth were again alone inside the sphere.

She sat back and crossed her arms with a scowl. "I guess they HAVE been watching us."

"Would 'a been nice if they helped a little."

"Humph. That would have interfered with their experiment."

"Even giving hint of where Anna was?"

"Apparently." She gave a small sigh. "I really don't understand how those two think."

"Don't think they understand either."

"There's not anything you can do about them. Now what is it about baseballs and 77?"

"Only way I could get to Monument Island was to go through Raffle Square. To keep from scotching the whole thing I pretended to take part in the raffle. Everyone got a baseball with a number on it. Every Booker got one with a 77 on it. That just happened to be the winning number."

"And what did you win?"

"First throw at a interracial couple."

She blinked then put it together. "You mean the two that gave you the Gear at Battleship Bay?"

"The same."

"So what did you do with the ball?"

"Tried to bean Fink with it."

That made her smile a little "I wish I could have seen that."

"Never got to throw. Police saw the brand on my hand, stopped me. After that, all of Columbia was after me. Other Bookers had much the same happen."

The smile vanished. "And we've chosen 77 again." She paused to think. "How many Constants are there? How many forms can they take?"

He looked at the building they were approaching. It was plastered with neon signs advertising the Fleet Hall, candy, smoke shops, casinos and other things. "Worry about it later. Coming up on Fort Frolic."

End Chapter 61


	62. Chapter 62

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 62

-Booker-

The door to the bathysphere opened up and he stepped out. This "station" looked like it was more of a maintenance room than a station on the Rapture Metro. There were pipes all over, it was small and not all that clean. Elizabeth came up behind him on his right.

"This hasn't changed that much since… " she continued talking, but he couldn't understand the words. The voice was yelling again. Go away! Just ignore it! Ignore, ignore it.

He had to find his daughter.

"Are you ok Booker?"

"Fine, what were you saying?"

She gave him a slightly worried look before she continued. "This is the west station. The east station is opposite this one. The entrance to the Atrium is down on to the right,."

They went through the Securis door, to the right were two Health Stations, a U-Invent, a Gene Bank and a Vita Chamber. Ahead was a pile of luggage and crates. He took a few steps and static started coming over the shortwave.

As he walked past the crates a noticed a familiar yellow glow. As he took a step towards it the glow changed from yellow to blue. He went over and picked up the Infusion and quickly drank it to increase his health. Had the bad feeling might need it.

Behind one of the crates was an Audio Diary, would have missed it if he hadn't stopped to get the Infusion. Elizabeth made a slight sound of disgust when he went to play it.

_Sander Cohen: A New Medium_

_February 25, 1959_

_There is a new scent in the air. Pheromones Ryan called them. The old blowhard can control the splicers with pre-recorded messages on the Public Address System. And what Does he do with it? He turns them against that utter BORE, Atlas. Boring, boring, BORING! There is so much to be done! It is the duty of the artist to create, to capture life and death! Fort Frolic is mine now and it shall become my new canvas. _

"That explains why Atlas is losing. Ryan has a method of controlling the minds of the splicers. Or at least influencing them."

A worrying thought came to him. "Have I been affected?"

"What do you think of Andrew Ryan?" Elizabeth asked with a half-smile.

"If Jack doesn't kill him I will."

"I think it's safe to say you haven't been influenced."

He started walking towards the entrance again. "Why though?"

"Whatever Ryan's doing it only works on splicers, so it may be that he put something into the Plasmids."

"Plasmids I drank were made before the war."

"Ryan certainly couldn't have done anything to them. Of course it could be that you're just too stubborn."

"Humph. Does seem to be a family trait."

There was a wistful tone in her voice. "Yes, it is."

The entrance to Fort Frolic was just ahead, but the doors were shut. We went up to them and they didn't open. Hard way then. He bent down and tried to lift one open, but it didn't budge. Had to be a way in. If had to, he would break them down.

The static on his radio changed to music. Elizabeth made an unhappy face as the music became clearer. Guess she didn't like the song. His leg started to bother him again. He made sure to walk as if it didn't bother him.

"Cohen must have locked these down." Elizabeth scowled at the doors a moment. "Wait. The keys you took from Malcolm, they might be able to open them."

'Malcolm?' Then he remembered. Cohen's "disciples" down in the Blue Ascot. The key he took from Malcolm's body was on a keychain with the others he had picked up.

"Uh, don't see a lock."

Elizabeth started looking around. "There has to be one here someplace."

Where would you hide a lock? Needed to be easy to get to, near the doors and the lock would have been installed when the place was built. He went to the center column between the doors and started knocking on it. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything.

Just above the trash can came a hollow sound.

"Seems a little too easy to find."

He opened a small panel to reveal a lock. "Likely they just didn't want people to see the lock, not really trying to hide it." He tried the key and a moment later the door in front of him opened. There was another set of doors beyond them. Hope those weren't locked.

He put the panel back in place and took two steps and the inner doors opened by themselves.

Place was big. Just ahead was a flight of stairs to the upper floor and a flashy display proclaiming it to be the "Fleet Hall." Lots of neon signs, a stage over to the left. Store fronts ran all the right side, but most were dark and empty. The signs over them had been destroyed so you wouldn't even know what had been there. Despite all the neon and lights, the place was still dark and shadowy.

"This is the Atrium. Looks like most places have closed up for good. If we get lucky, Cohen won't realize we are here."

"Like we're going to get that lucky."

"On the other side of the stairs is a small mall, it might be a good place to start looking for Anna."

He took a few steps and heard something ahead, two people talking near some kind of displays. He went to take cover behind the stairs.

Close enough he could make out what they were saying now. The first was a man with a low voice. "I don't understand why we can't leave."

A woman with a slightly shrill voice answered. "Mr. Cohen said we couldn't, that's why!"

"I know that baby, but why…?"

The two started walking. The man had a torn black suit and carrying a pistol. The woman wore the remains of a white dress with red trim. Both had rabbit masks on.

"Don't you want to be a star?" the woman demanded.

"Sure! But how does stayin' here do that?"

As the pair talked they turned in his and Elizabeth's direction. Time to move. Suddenly a man's voice screamed "You don't belong here!" from above. Then something landed heavily behind him.

He dodged to the side as he turned around. Good that he did as two hooks went flying past. A Spider Splicer had dropped down from above while he had been watching the other two. The splicer jumped at him, hooks out to try and slash Booker to pieces. He fired a burst from the Tommy Gun and stepped aside of the dead splicer crashed to the ground.

He turned around just in time to get hit by two pistol rounds and a fire ball. "Bastard!" The woman screamed. He dodged another fireball as the other fired his pistol again. Shield could take few more hits from that. The female splicer was more dangerous. He fired a burst and expected her to pull a Houdini and vanish.

She didn't, instead she turned and ran for a Health Dispenser mounted on a support pillar screaming about how she "I'm going to survive!" He took another hit from the other splicer's pistol as he brought the machine gun up to his shoulder and killed the fleeing splicer just as she got to the Dispenser.

The Leadhead threw all caution to the wind and charged at Booker intend on pistol whipping him. Not going to waste ammo on this one. He struck out with the Air Grabber and the Electric Eel Gear shocked the splicer. He hit the splicer twice more, the third time setting him on fire.

He stepped back as the splicer thrashed around as he burned. After a few moments the splicer collapsed, the corpse continuing to burn.

"You could have shot him." Elizabeth told him a slightly distasteful tone in her voice.

"Got some EVE back that way."

Suddenly he was blinded by bright lights.

He raised a hand up to shield his eyes. "What?"

A voice filled the Atrium.

_Well, well, WELL. What Have we here?_

"It's Cohen." The disgust in Elizabeth's voice was mixed with worry.

_Not badly done. A little on the brutish side, but still not without a certain amount of flair._

His eyes adjusted a little. There were spotlights from above pointed at him. Seemed to be ignoring Elizabeth which was good. Neither of them needed Cohen to take a renewed interest in her. He went to move out of the lights, but they followed him.

_So what brings you to Fort Frolic? Did Ryan send you or maybe Atlas? Tell me, chop chop!_

"Got my own reason for being here." he called out.

"Booker, he might recognize your voice!"

"And he might recognize you." he told her softly. Needed to keep Cohen focused on him and not pay attention to Elizabeth.

_Oh? And what would that be?_

"He can't... He won't recognize me. I'm certain of it."

How to put? Certainly wasn't going to tell him he was looking for Anna. _I'm wAiting! I do not LIKE to be kept WAITING! Show him My displeasure!_

Splicers erupted from around the Atrium and charged towards him.

First two where Thugish Splicers. A couple of bursts from the machine gun took care of them. As the second fell, a Spider Splicer in a green vest started throwing hooks. As he went to draw a bead on the Spider Splicer, he leapt behind a pillar.

Then a bolt of lightning hit him. A Shock Jockey with a seashell mask had come through the door just the other side of the stage. Booker dodged another bolt, but was hit by a hook. He fired off a burst at the Jockey, but only about half of it hit. This was trouble, if he concentrated on one, the other had a good shot at him. Needed to take one of them out fast, but not use a Plasmid.

Best to keep Cohen in the dark about what he could do.

Autopistol had antipersonnel rounds, accurate at range. The Jockey retreated back through the doorway, but the Spider Splicer was on the floor again and throwing more hooks. He took another hit, but the splicer didn't try jumping away.

Booker held the autopistol are arm's length and used the telescopic sight. He fired three times, the last one hitting the splicer in the forehead. Forgot to change Gears. He switched to Evil Eye and turned back to the Jockey just in time to get hit by another lightning bolt. Shield kept it out, but it was just about to break. He fired twice hitting the splicer both times and he went down.

Another splicer came running down the stairs now. This one wore a white shirt with a vest that was bursting at the seams. He carried a fire axe in his right hand and waved it around like it was a stick. What caught his eye though was the brightly colored bird mask. It was just like the one Malcolm wore.

'How many of these disciples are there?'

"Come out, come out! Got wood to chop!" the splicer yelled.

Didn't matter. What did was not letting that Bruiser anywhere near either of them. He threw a Proximity Mines at the bottom of the stairs. Should slow him down.

He started backing up and brought up the Chemical Thrower. The Bruiser staggered as the mine went off, it had hurt him, but not enough to stop him. The splicer spotted him and started running directly at him.

"Chop! Chop! Chop the WOOD!" he yelled.

When the splicer got in range he let loose a stream of liquid nitrogen encasing the Bruiser in ice. He quickly snapped three pictures with the Research Camera and hoped it would raise his level enough to help. It didn't.

He quickly switched to his Shotgun and loaded it with Electric Buck. Just as he finished the Bruiser broke out of the ice. Booker quickly fired all four rounds, but the splicer still stood.

While the splicer was still shocked, Booker drew his autopistol again and quickly fired off the remaining rounds in the clip in the garish bird mask. Finally, the splicer dropped.

"How do we get to that mall?" he asked Elizabeth as he looked for more splicers.

_You MUST excuse me, that was very rude. It has been So very stressful lately. Now where were we? Ah yes, why you are here?_

Best to answer, else Cohen would send more splicers after him. "Came to get back something taken from me. Not looking to cause you trouble."

_You certainly caused a problem for poor Victor there, but I think it's for the best. He was fun for a while, but he'd lost all his charm as of late._

"That was Victor?" Elizabeth asked as she walked over to the Bruise's corpse. "That poor fool."

_You're quite the athletic young man, I admire that. Oh! Where ARE my manners? Welcome to Fort Frolic! I am Sander Cohen, your host this evening. And you are?_

Good, didn't ask about Elizabeth. "Name's Boston, Robert Boston."

_I think this shall be a most entertaining evening Mr. Boston. A Night to Remember!_

"I don't think you're going to like Cohen's idea of entertainment Booker. We need to find Anna quickly."

They headed down to the mall. He researched and Bypassed several cameras along the way and dispatched three splicers when they tried to bushwhack them. Two Thugish and a Houdini. The other splicers they saw kept their distance. He only paused long enough to research the Houdini before moving on. They found an ammo machine near a Le Marquis D'Epoque. Elizabeth mentioned that Comstock was a frequent visitor to this place. No surprise there.

But this was the end of the mall. No Big Daddy here, no Little Sister. "She not here." he said sadly.

"She might be on the upper level of the Atrium." Elizabeth looked unhappy about having to go up there, but there was nothing for it. Tried not to favor his left leg, but it was getting harder.

They were passing the Cocktail Lounge when Cohen started talking again. _I would say you are looking for someone, not something. How interesting._

He didn't bother to respond. Had a good enough read on Cohen that he would make things harder if he knew he was looking for Anna.

As he walked to the stairs a splicer attacked. Another Spider Splicer. This one threw fireballs rather than hooks though.

Just to the left of the entryway to the Fleet Hall were several storage crates along with an Audio Diary. A little further down was something called Cohen's Collection. Looked like there had been a fire.

_Sander Cohen: Travesty _

_February 27, 1959_

_One of those little aboMINations has disgraced my gallery! That little… Creature put her scribbles alongside MY masterpieces! As if her scrawls were art! This. Is. intolerable! They are so… plebeian. A man with a red tie, a house, trees, the SUN! To have those placed next to my masterstrokes IS AN INSULT! I must burn them all, Burn it ALL! _

"Huh. Guess that proves Anna is here."

Elizabeth seemed more than a little amused. "I wish I could have seen the expression on his face." She sobered a little. "How much does Anna draw or paint?"

"Draws some when she can't go outside."

"Guess she's falling back on old habits."

Old habit? What old...The voice in his head was screaming again. He pushed it aside.

A Big Daddy came stomping down the corridor to their right. He stepped back and waited. The Bouncer walk up to a Little Sister Vent and pound on it with its left hand. Moments later a Little Sister poked her head out.

"Good Morning Mr. Bubbles!"

Not Anna, not Anna. He let out a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding and quickly researched the pair.

Elizabeth almost seemed a little relived. "Anna must be down in Poseidon Plaza."

"Could she be in the Fleet Hall?"

"I hope not. Cohen is probably there and I, ah Anna would likely avoid it. We can always come back to it later if we have to."

The voice in his head yelled something again before he was able to quiet it down.

After the Sister had been helped to the ground the pair started walking in his and Elizabeth's direction.

"How do we get to Poseidon?" he asked as they turned and went back down the stairs to avoid the two.

"Go through the door the Jockey used earlier and go to the right. There's a flight of stairs and a Securis door. That will take us to the entrance we used before."

He reached the bottom of the stairs and they found two splicers looting the dead bodies. A Leadhead and a Nitro. When they saw him they both attacked. He killed the Leadhead quickly, but froze the Nitro and got some good research pictures. Got to level three on them finally. When the ice broke, Booker was standing behind the splicer with his shotgun.

As he walked up the steps to the Securis door Cohen came back on the loudspeaker. _You are quite skilled, but I sense no passion. An artist needs passion to bring his work to life._

"Sorry to disappoint."

_Maybe a greater challenge is needed to fire your blood._

"Don't trouble yourself on my account."

_No trouble at all. This has become a rather pleasant diversion._

Elizabeth looked worried. "I don't know what Cohen is planning, but it's not going to be pleasant."

The Securis door opened as they walked up to it. "Not much in damn city has been."

It was a brief walk down a tunnel and the farther they got, the colder it became. By the time they got to the next Securis door the floor was covered in ice. When the door reluctantly opened they found a massive pile of ice covered rubble covering the entrance from Tantalus.

Everything here was covered in ice. The walls, the floor, pipes, everything. Then they heard a man's voice.

"I fail to see the artistic merit of this particular piece."

A woman responded. "Art has never been strong point of ours brother."

"Now isn't that a surprise." he muttered to Elizabeth as they walking into the room.

She had a resigned look on her face. "There are a lot worse things that could happen."

Both Luteces made a point of not noticing them as they walked up to them. The pair was examining a statue of some kind. A woman with her hands over her head in a ballerina's pose. It wasn't covered in ice, but plaster. There were four of these statues in different poses scattered about the room. Three of them female and a male one with a rabbit mask on.

The female spoke, but didn't look at them. "Mr. DeWitt, what do you make of Mr. Cohen's art?"

"I don't think he is any more conversant in art than we are." the brother responded.

Best to play along. Their being here was actually a good sign. It meant they should be close to finding Anna. He took a close look at the statue and knew something was very wrong with it.

"Not a statue."

All three looked at him. The Luteces looked slightly puzzled, but Elizabeth quickly realized what he meant. Using the Grabber, he scraped some of the plaster off the statue's arm to reveal bare skin.

The only reaction from the twins was a slightly raised eyebrow. Elizabeth looked disgusted.

Lutece went back to studying the plaster covered corpse, clearly still trying to find "art" in it. Most people would think that the Luteces "deaths" had done something to them, turned them into something inhuman. But he knew from Comstock's memories that they had been like this long before they got their atoms scattered across time and space.

"So what do you plan to do once you find the girl?" the female asked still looking at the statue.

"You can't cure her of her current condition." the male continued.

"There's a cure or will be one."

"And how can you be sure of that?" the male asked.

He thought that Elizabeth said something. The voice in his head started screaming again. "Elizabeth told me."

"And she did this when?" the female asked. She seemed genuinely puzzled.

Had a vision of a room, a room? Anna was sitting in a chair, there was someone else there, but he couldn't… see her, who? "Little while after I got here. Down in Fontaine's." The voice was screaming louder than ever. Elizabeth was saying something, but he still couldn't hear her. "Ask her yourself." he told them as he gestured in Elizabeth's direction as she waved her hands as if to try and stop him.

The male spoke first. "There is no one there, Mr. DeWitt."

Anger boiled up and the voice still screamed. What game were these two playing now? He clamped down on his anger and forced the voice away. "Don't have time for this. Have to find Anna."

The two still talked as he walked away.

"Told you." the male said.

"Yes you did, but you don't seem very satisfied."

"At times one would prefer to be wrong than right."

The Securis door closed, cutting off the rest of the conversation. Now to find Anna.

-Elizabeth-

Booker's delusion was getting stronger and he was starting to limp a little when he wasn't careful to hide it. How much more damage would ADAM do to him? Then there were the Luteces, she was sure they were convinced that Booker was going mad and they weren't wrong. She was certain those two weren't going to help them. Best to concentrate on what little she could do.

Anna. She was close now, she knew it. Not sure how, but she did. Things were starting to look a bit strange to her. It was like seeing how it really was and at same time, how Anna must remember it.

Poseidon Plaza looked much the same as before, a little darker and more damaged, but it could be much worse. A few splicers were walking about, but they didn't attack.

_They ARE breathtaking, aren't they? Those pieces are some of my latest, Greatest works._

Covering dead bodies in plaster are his greatest works? Cohen was even madder that she though.

"Will say I haven't seen anything like them before." Booker told him sarcastically.

_Of Course! The artist must explore new mediums! Create that which has never been seen before to dazzle the senses!_

Booker didn't respond and started walking down to the other end of the plaza. Just past the stairways that lead to the upper floor there was heavy damage to the wall. As they got closer Spider Splicer came crawling out from a hole near the top.

"I didn't mean it! I found her that way!" he screamed before dropping to the floor.

Booker made sure keep his distance, but the splicer saw him and yelled "It's all you fault!" and leapt at Booker. One good burst was all it took. The other nearby splicers didn't even pay attention. Booker looked at the damaged wall a moment and backed up to go around the other side.

They passed a niche with a Health Dispenser and a U-Invent on the left and the right, the bottom part of the ugly sculpture that reached to the floor above. After that they turned the corner and continued down the corridor. They walked a short distance past the Tobaccoria before they stopped. No Little Sisters here, but they were close enough to get a good look at Eve's Garden at the far end.

"Huh. That's where that Jasmine girl from the files down in Fontaine's worked."

*I doubt that she benefitted from her relationship with Ryan.* Something nagged at the back of her mind a moment then faded. Whatever it had been, it wasn't important.

"Anna's not here, must be on the upper floor." Her father told her softly.

They walked back and Booker took a quick look into a damaged section of a wall. Half buried in the charred wood was a First Aid Kit and further in, an Infusion. Booker tried to pick it up, but it was out of reach. But there looked to be something behind it.

*Is that some metal back there?*

He was getting out the Air Grabber. "Think it is." It took a minute, but Booker was able to use the metal to drag the Infusion close enough to grab. He quickly drank it, but it didn't seem to make him feel better.

"Last one I can put to stayin' healthy." he said softly to himself, then more loudly "Let's get upstairs."

They turned the corner and headed back towards the plaza's entrance and the stairways. They had to stop and wait for a Bouncer and a Little Sister to pass.

It was Sally! Seeing Sally made her feel a little confused, hard to think. Just as she had felt when they had seen her the last time they had been here. For all the trouble it caused her, it enabled Booker to get some good research pictures.

Sally looked to be in good health and seemed happy as she skipped along. "Come on Mr. Bubbles, we'll be late!" She didn't even look at Booker. She didn't think Sally even knew he was there. After the pair passed, her father continued walking towards the stairs. There was urgency in his step.

As they got closer to the stairs they heard gunshots. A Leadhead was battling a Spider Splicer and they were right in Booker's way. He lifted his machine gun and then lowered it reluctantly. He must have been thinking of killing the two.

The fight lasted only a minute. The Spider Splicer would jump from the floor to the ceiling and back to avoid the fire from the Leadhead's pistol. When the other splicer would pause shooting the Spider Splicer would drop down to the floor and attack. Finally the Leadhead broke and ran. He didn't get ten feet before the Spider Splicer jumped on his back and slashed him into pieces. When she was done, she howled in triumph and jumped back to the ceiling to crawl away.

The way now clear, Booker stopped a moment at the Circus of Values to replenish his EVE and Tommy Gun ammo. Then it was up the stairs.

The bodies from when they have saved Sally were gone, but several spotlights lit up another of Cohen's "art pieces". A seated man with a rabbit mask and a woman lying down beside him, all covered in plaster.

'How many people has Cohen killed and cover in plaster?' She had a feeling she didn't want to know. Behind the bench the corpses were seated on was a Gear half covered in plaster.

Booker moved to pick it up.

_What do you think you're DOING! You are NOT permitted to disturb my work!_

"Not botherin' your "work" Cohen." Booker yelled as he picked up the Gear. This one was called "Speed Demon". Doubles speed while sprinting.

_Take my direction Mr. Boston, I allow you here only because you interest me. Do Not give me cause to change my mind._

"I believe you Cohen, I believe you." Under his breath he continued. "Believe you're out of your mind."

It was more than a little irritating to see Booker forced into playing Cohen's little game. But the lunatic could make their stay in Fort Frolic much worse than it had been so far.

Booker started towards the other end of the plaza. Booker took a got to the front of Rapture Records and stopped.

"Don't see any splicers."

*Cohen is up to something.* But what?

Booker backed up until he reached the stairs. Then he started looking around very carefully. His eyes would focus on corners, the niche on the left side. The last place he looked was on the two story sculpture in front of Pharaoh's Fortune. Up near the top was a Spider Splicer. She was looking down at the floor as if waiting for something.

"Ambush." he father said quietly. "A pair on top of the sculpture, more around the corners."

Two on the sculpture? She had only seen one splicer. Booker got out the autopistol and focused on the splicer on the sculpture. "Let's cut down the odds a little." He pulled the trigger, but there was little sound because of the Sound of Silence Gear. The dead splicer dropped off the sculpture and down to land on the railing.

Her father quickly shifted further to the left. Now she could see the head of another splicer or rather his white bird mask. Another shot and that splicer's head vanished. How had he known the other splicer was there? After the shot she did a quick recreation of the stature and focused on the top of it. There a few of the mask's feather poking above the top of the sculpture. He had been looking for such a detail while she hadn't.

He got out the shotgun and loaded up the Explosive Buck.

*You could clear them out with a few Devil's Kiss bombs.*

"Not so loud." he whispered. "I could, but don't want Cohen to know."

*You think he has something else planned.*

"Yeah. He's just toying right now."

*You think he's saving the worst for when we try to leave.* That sounded exactly like something Cohen would do as part of his "art". *So where are the others splicers?*

He focused on a dead Thugish Splicer slumped against a wall. "For one, that dead body isn't dead." Another shot and the barrel of the gun grew brighter.

*He is now.* Another death for Cohen's "art". Booker was killing the ambushers quietly so not to let them know he had discovered it. They would certainly attack if they knew the ambush had been spoiled. This way her father kept the initiative.

Her father walked back to Rapture Records and paused a moment. "Let's try the new Gear."

What? Booker shot forward. Not as fast as with Charge, but still fast.

He didn't stop until he was at the sculpture. Someone shot at him, but missed. That was why he did it, to gain surprise. Booker quickly turned around as two Spider Splicers dropped from the ceiling. The first was dead before he landed while the second managed to throw a pair of hooks which Booker avoided before his shot killed her.

Something hit Booker in the back, a fireball. He quickly turned and saw a Houdini vanish. No time to get a shot off. A couple pistol shots rang out, but only one hit. Booker ignored them, clearly considered the Houdini a greater threat.

Booker just finished switching over to his machine gun when the splicer reappeared near the Little Sister Vent. Booker hit him with a bust and he vanished again without attacking. The Leadhead fired again as another splicer wielding an oversized flashlight charged at her father screaming "You don't judge me!"

The Thugish splicer died with a burst from the Tommy Gun and another bust hit the Leadhead and forced her to retreat. Booker switched back to the shotgun just as the Houdini appeared in front of the doors to Pharaoh's Fortune. The splicer threw a fireball at the same time he fired the shotgun. Booker grunted in pain, but his Shield still held. The splicer screamed in pain as he caught fire and vanished again.

Booker turned back towards the other splicers just as a Spider Splicer slashed him with his hooks. A shotgun blast ended him. As her father switched back the Tommy Gun, the Houdini reappeared down near Rapture Records running away from them and still on fire. He took five steps before slumping to the floor, still continuing to burn.

The Leadhead started shooting again and Booker's Shield broke. He brought the machine gun up to his shoulder and fired off a pair of bursts that killed the last attacker.

_Oh, what Was tasty. You Do have a way of wetting a man's appetite._

Booker ignored Cohen as he quickly reloaded his weapons. He didn't even bother research any of the dead. It was harder to see clearly now. Things looked a little unreal, sparkling like new or made of gold. The dead Thugish splicer at their feet suddenly looked handsome, like an angel.

Is this how Anna is seeing the world? She concentrated a moment and the illusion faded. The angel turned back into a man with bloody torn clothes, scratch marks on his face and some kind of growth where his left ear should have been.

*She's close.* she told her father *Very close.*

That's when they heard the footsteps of a Big Daddy. They sounded like they came from the other end of the plaza. By Eve's Garden?

Her father ran around sculpture and looked down the plaza, there was a Bouncer who looked a little like an armored knight for some reason. And he had a Little Sister with him. They were walking away from Eve's Garden and towards them. The Little Sister wore a blue and white dress, her dark brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and she had sneakers on her feet. Even at this distance she knew the face.

"ANNA!"

The girl looked up and her world broke apart. Things flew through her mind, memoriessights soundssmells swirled around as if in a tornado and it all went dark.

She blinked and could see, hear again. The air wasn't overly warm and rather damp. Her dress wasn't very comfortable. Feel? She could feel! How? It smelled bad. Dress? What happened?

There was an evil looking creature up by a beautiful sculpture and it was running towards them!

"Anna!" The creature suddenly turned into her father. The conditioning was making her see things. He was running towards her. Calling her, calling Anna's name.

So confusing, hard to think. She was hearing her father call out twice at once. Like she was hearing it from two different places.

She was hearing from two different places she realized. How? Later! Not safe!

Mr. Bub… The Big Daddy behind her screamed a warning and the floor turned red. She wanted to turn and look, but nothing happened. She looked at her father, but couldn't move. It was all so confusing. Her father, Booker continued running towards her.

The Bouncer spun up his drill, going to charge.

*Daddy LOOK OUT!" she screamed.

Too late! The Bouncer charged at her father and hit him before he could react.

NO! nononono! He went flying back. A normal man would have been killed instantly. Her father stood up, but looked badly hurt. He must have let his Shield drop when he saw Anna.

*Booker! Run! Just run! Get out of the Bouncer's sight NOW!*

She was running up after the Big Daddy. "No! Mr. Bubbles! That's my daddy!"

Her father hesitated. He didn't want to leave Anna behind. *I said RUN! Or the Bouncer will kill you! Anna will be all right! Trust me! Please go hide!*

The Bouncer started to run up towards her father as she caught up to the Big Daddy. "You leave him alone!" she yelled and kicked the Bouncer in the shin. Part of her couldn't believe she had just done that.

The Bouncer turned to look down at her. "That's a bad Mr. Bubbles!" she berated the Big Daddy. "Don't hurt my daddy or he'll get mad at you!"

The Bouncer turned back to where her father had been standing, but he was gone. He must have gone around the corner to safety. The Big Daddy made a mournful sound.

"Elizabeth! Are you and Anna ok?" he called. It was hard for her to hear what he said. She concentrated on his voice. The sound of the Big Daddy faded into the background.

*I'm fine, uh, the Bouncer didn't see me as a threat. How are you?*

"Is Anna ok, can you see her?"

She was still yelling at the Bouncer. A few of the terms were colorful to say the least.

*Anna's fine. Now how badly injured are you?* Humph. He could be such a... man at times.

"Health Dispenser works fine. Going to kill that Bouncer."

*Booker No! You don't have fight the Big Daddy.*

"What?"

*I said you don't have to fight him. All we have to do wait a little.* The Bouncer was getting irritated at her now and picked her up and gently tossed her on his back.

"Wait? Why should...?"

"You're a bad Mr. Bubbles." she told the Bouncer as she slapped his helmet. The Big Daddy was walking back towards Eve's Garden.

*All we have to do wait until the Bouncer gets Anna to a Vent. After he leaves you just need to do is call her. She WILL come to you.*

"Are you sure? Does she know I'm here?"

"Hurting my daddy is bad. Bad Mr. Bubbles will have bad things happen to him."

*Yes, I am SURE she knows you're here. We don't need any useless bloodshed.*

What she didn't want to tell him she was worried that he wouldn't be able to defeat the Bouncer. She knew he *should* be able too, but these Big Daddies were like Songbird. What if the Constant that Booker could never beat her "protector" applied in Rapture? She wasn't willing to chance it.

The Bouncer stepped up to the Little Sister Vent just outside Eve's Garden and practically shoved her into it. She stuck her tongue out at the Bouncer before she was forced in. She only went a short way down the tube before she stopped. She turned around inside the tube as the Big Daddy stomped away.

Several minutes passed before something knocked at the Vent.

"Anna, it's daddy. It's safe. Please, please come out Anna." He sounded worried, scared.

It was so good to hear his voice. She scrambled up the vent as fast as she could and leapt out into her father's arms. Her father went down on one knee as they held each other.

She was happy beyond words.

She couldn't tell how long this went on. But her father finally stood. He was smiling and there were tears in his eyes that the mask could not hide.

"I missed you so much Anna."

"I knew you would find me." she told him.

Then his eyes darkened and he looked back down the plaza. There were two, no three splicers down there, moving their direction.

"Now, we have to get out of here in one piece." he said soberly.

Chapter 62 End


	63. Chapter 63

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 63

-Anna/Elizabeth-

Booker was looking down at the splicers near the sculpture and brought up the machine gun to his shoulder.

He was interrupted before he could fire.

_Such a heartwarming display. That would melt even Martin's cold heart. Mr. Finnegan, where IS Martin? He should BE Here!_

She heard Fitpatrick talking in the background, but he was too far from the microphone to make out what he was saying. She felt sorry for him in a way. He slavishly followed Cohen's orders and got naught but abuse for it.

The two splicers charged at them. One a Thugish, the other a Spider Splicer. Her father shot them down with no difficulties. She was going to have to get use to the father being more aggressive in some ways. If he thought there was a threat to his daughter, he would kill it as quickly as he could.

No, not so different really. It was the same way he acted in Columbia after Finkton.

"Anna, you don't need that anymore." her father said as he took hold of the syringe.

She should be happy to be rid of the thing, but she refused to let go.

"Still need it." she told her father defiantly.

"Honey, please."

"Still need it."

"Why do you need it?"

Ann thought for a moment. "Don't know. Know I need it."

*Booker, we can do this later when we're all safely out of here.*

He looked up a little then down again. "You're right." he told her. Then to his daughter. "When I pick you up, don't stick me that thing."

"I won't!" she replied happily.

He reached down and picked his daughter up and held her with his left arm. "Honey, put an arm around my neck and hold on, ok? Need to get out of here."

It was a little disorienting. She had gotten used to looking through Booker's eyes and now seeing things from Anna's view was a little strange. Everything seemed larger. She looked around a moment and back at Eve's Garden and discovered the letters were all distorted, strange. She knew what the signs said, but now she was looking through Anna's, her own eyes, she couldn't read them anymore. She would have to figure why later, her father was walking as fast as he could, almost running.

He kept the Tommy Gun out and made sure none of the splicers came very close. Several splicers did try to attack them, but her father quickly shot them down. They had all been Thugish Splicers and were easy to deal with. But what would happen if a Houdini or Bruiser attacked?

A small group of three splicers attacked them just before they got to the tunnel leading out of Poseidon Plaza. Two Spider Splicers and a Leadhead. Her father killed the Leadhead, then the one of the Spider Splicers.

The last splicer had yelled "Give me the little bitch!" he jumped at her father, hooks out ready to tear him apart. She yelled back "You're not a nice man!" as her father opened fired.

"Elizabeth, if it gets bad, I'm going to have to put Anna down. Will you be able to watch over her?"

This was something she hadn't considered. How could she watch Anna when she WAS Anna? She knew what Anna was doing, could feel what she felt now, but she still couldn't talk to her!

They entered Cohen's "gallery" with the plaster covered corpses. No sign of the Luteces this time. What else could she do but say "yes" though? If she said "no" it would certainly cause another "attack". That could get both of them killed.

*I'll do my best Booker.* She told him as they passed the ice covered rubble to enter the next tunnel.

"Thank you. Know you will." He sounded relived.

They left the frozen tunnel and started down the steps to the Atrium. If Cohen was going to do something, it would be soon.

_My apologies Mr. Boston, many matters require the attention of an artist. So that girl is your...Wait, I know that little bitch. She. Is. The. ONE!_

Cohen must of found out it was Anna that put her drawings in his collection.

"One what?" her father asked innocently.

_That creature, that... kobold made a travesty of My Work! That little abomination will pay for her mockery!_

"She's leaving with me and you'll not see her again."

_Oh, I intend to see a great deal of that little doubter. Those little creatures have been impossible to get lately and I have the Perfect pose for her. Put her down and I shall allow you to leave._

"She's leaving with me Cohen."

_How dramatic! This certainly was worth the wait!_ Cohen sounded eager for the bloodshed that would soon occur.

Cohen's splicers would try to take Anna from him now. Her father might get killed trying to protect her. There had to be a better way than...

*Booker, put Anna into a Vent! There's one just to the left of the steps.*

"Would keep her safe while I take care of Cohen's splicers." he admitted reluctantly.

Booker walked over to the Vent as he explained. "Daddy has some work to do."

"Aww. Can I watch?"

"No, it's.. not going to something nice. Should only take a few minutes, ok?"

She pouted a moment. "Okaay."

He picked her up and gently put her into the vent. "Now you don't come out until I tell you to. There are bad people here."

"I know daddy."

"Suppose you do." her father said sadly. "Be careful Elizabeth." He told an empty section of the wall next to the Vent.

As he walked away he reloaded the shotgun and Tommy Gun with different ammunition. Before he went through the door he looked back at Anna and smiled confidently. Anna wasn't worried and neither was she.

Her father walked through the door and Cohen came over the loudspeakers. _Gentlemen! Time for the… _Gunfire, the detonation of a Devil's Kiss bomb and the screams of the dying interrupted him.

_You, you... _

Cohn sounded as if were about to have a fit of apoplexy. More gunfire. More explosions. She thought it was her father using Charge. If she wanted she thought she was sure she could still look through her father's eyes to find out what was happening. But she was worried Anna wouldn't let her back in again. Best to stay where she was. The sounds of the fighting were dying quickly.

A cloud of ice formed in front of the Vent. From within it the cloud, and frost covered arm reached out to grab her! She backed down the shaft out of reach.

"I almost got one of you little bitches before and don't aim to miss again!"

It was Martin! What had he done to himself? He was the Cold Man?

"Get out here!" He yelled and reached further down the tube.

"You're a bad man!" she yelled back. She wasn't going to back away from the end of the Vent. But that meant she was close enough that Finnegan might be able to do something to her. Anna had an idea though. As the splicers reached for her again, she jammed the syringe into his hand. Hard.

Finnegan screamed in pain and jerked his arm out.

"You little BITCH! I'm going to..."

"GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!"

Her fathers' roar was followed by Tommy Gun fire and Finnegan vanished in a cloud of ice crystals.

A moment later her father appeared at the end of the Vent. "Anna, are you alright?" His face was filled with worry.

"I showed him!"

Her father relaxed. "Yes, yes you did. Let's get out of here."

As Anna climbed from the Vent, Finnegan's voice rang out from someplace on the upper floor. "I'm not messin' with that bastard Cohen! Did you SEE what he fucking did? If you want that little bitch, you come down and get her yourself!"

Her father looked a little worse for wear, but she had seen him in a lot worse shape in Columbia. He rested her in his left arm and quickly made his way to the Atrium.

The scene was one of devastation. At least eight new dead bodies were scattered about the Atrium. Piles of ash suggested that there had been more.

*What happened?* She had been expecting a fight, but this looked worse than she expected.

"Some were bunched up. One Devil's Kiss Trap and it was mostly mop up. Smart one's ran."

_I had thought you could become a Glorious butterfly under my tutelage! But no, you are just a rube, a plodding MISANTHROPE with not even a sliver of art in your soul! Begone! Begone! And take that horrid creature with you!_

Her father chuckled, but didn't respond. Anna blew a raspberry at him.

They stopped at the Circus of Values by the doors where he purchased tea, four pep bars and a First Aid Kit. He bought most of the stock in the machine. She was a little irritated that he hadn't said how bad the fight had actually been, but he probably did so not to worry Anna.

"Can Sally come with us?" she asked.

"No, I'm sorry, honey. Sally will be just fine though."

As they walked to the sphere her father asked if she wanted to say anything to Cohen before they left. She told him she didn't. The last thing they needed right now was for him to have another "attack".

As the door to the docking bay opened Cohen come over the loudspeakers one last time.

_Never come back here again rube! Your very __**existence**__ is an insult!_

Her father put her down and turned around to address Cohen. "Won't be back here again unless you give me reason. You hurting a Little Sister is one of them reasons. If I Do come back, you won't be breathing when I leave."

"Remember that Cohen." The tone of his voice promised that it was no empty threat. Cohen must have gotten the message and didn't say anything more.

With that, he turned back to the sphere and stepped inside. Her father examined the choices of destination and made a slight frown.

*What's wrong?*

"This thing can't go to Prosperity." The Metro station at Prosperity Way would have been by far the best way to get back to the office safely.

*Where can it go?* She was examining the inside of the sphere and couldn't see the control column. Even if she could see it, she wouldn't have been able to read it.

"Hestia Chambers, Adonis Resorts, Arcadia, Priapus Gardens, Herculaneum Tower, Individual's Court and Tantalus."

*There isn't a listing for Hermes?* They could have gone back there and found a sphere that would take them to Prosperity Way.

"No, maybe it has to go to another station before it can go back."

*Hestia, Adonis and Herculaneum are all near Olympus Heights. I've not heard of Priapus Gardens or Individual's Court before.*

"Leaves us with Tantalus."

*It's the best choice I can see.*

He quickly set the controls for Tantalus and the sphere sank into the water.

She went over to sit by her father as the sphere traveled and he put his arm around her. He had never been very much for hugging back in Columbia and it was going to take a little getting used to. It was comforting though.

When they got to Tantalus they quickly exited the sphere and started for the Blue Ascot. A single Thugish Splicer tried to attack, but was shot down before he got close. She made a face when they got closer to the corpse. She didn't see even a small indication that she wanted to harvest the dead splicer. That was no small relief. She wasn't really sure how she would deal with that. They were attacked almost half a dozen more times by lone splicers.

After the fifth one died, she asked her father why the "ugly men" were always after her. Her father struggled trying to figure out what to say.

*Tell the truth Booker. Or a simple version of it.* It still made her a little sick thinking about knowing the slug was in her stomach. She hoped her father wouldn't mention it.

His shoulders slumped for a moment. "Anna, they did something to you here."

"That why things look funny and my eyes are yellow?"

"Yes. They… you have something called ADAM in you now."

"That's the green stuff!" she told him.

*ADAM in its unprocessed form is green.* she told Booker.

"The... green stuff. Those ugly people want it and they want it very badly. Enough to kill for it."

"I have my daddy to protect me." she said confidently.

"Always will. But I don't know how long it will be before that ADAM will be out of you. Before you're back to how you should be."

She sighed. "It's not that bad. Are you sure Sally will be ok?"

"She has Mr. Bubbles to protect her."

They were walking down the last tunnel to the Blue Ascot when a group of four splicers saw them from another tunnel. Their tunnel connected to the one they were in. He picked he up and it was a race to where the tunnels would meet. Using the Speed Demon Gear her father won handily.

When he reached the intersection, he dropped his last Proximity Mine just around the corner and kept on running. A few seconds later it detonated. Her father turned around and finished off the remaining two injured splicers with the autopistol.

They got to the Blue Ascot without further attacks and her father relaxed a little. All the bodies were gone now, but the smell of death still permeated the place. Then it was to Fortune Avenue. They carefully passed through the damaged doorway and onto the Avenue.

They started for the passage to the office, but her father stopped. "Might be a good time to get that case of meat we hid."

*You're going to take her into that junk yard?*

"I'll make sure she doesn't get her feet wet."

They walked down the tunnel to the destroyed bridge. He picked up Anna in his right arm and got out the Air Gabber. *You're going to jump down?*

Her father shook his head like he was trying to clear it. "Can stay here, if you want."

*No, I'll go.*

"What to go for a ride Anna?" he asked his daughter.

"Yeah!" she said happily, then she looked around. "Where're we going?"

"Down there." Her father said as he pointed down.

She wasn't worried about this "trip" of her fathers, but she was puzzled. 'Hold on Anna. You're in for a ride.'

"Hold on tight Anna." He told her and jumped to the freight hook they had used before. "Wee!" As he hung from the hook a few moments she laughed happily. He dismounted and landed with a splash of water.

"Again!" she yelled.

"Sorry, not today." He told her. Her father put her someplace dry for a moment and went to get the case of meat. It seemed like a lot to carry along with Anna, but she couldn't see that it bothered him.

Since they couldn't use the freight hook to get back up, her father retraced the path that took them back to the Securis door. She looked around taking everything in, as if trying to figure out how the broken equipment they passed might have worked.

They got to the Securis door and after he put her daughter down Booker pulled the door switch and opened the door.

There were six people standing just outside the door. Two of them had guns, three others some kind of knives and one with a club. The oldest of them was maybe 14 years old. There were five boys and a girl of maybe 13. The youngest boy looked only 8 years old. They were all dirty and looked hungry. There was something about their eyes that bothered her. Her father didn't draw a weapon, he just gently pushed her behind him. She wasn't scared of them!

A boy with dirty blond hair and a pistol pointed at her "See I told you! A Little Sister!"

"Yeah, payday." said the eldest boy who had a long knife scar on the right side of face and carried a shotgun. He said it almost cruelly.

"Don't do something you'll regret real fast." Her father told the children in a hard voice. That slowed them some, but not nearly enough.

"Give us that!" the boy with the shotgun demanded looking right at her. He must be the leader.

Her father lifted his left hand and a large flame burst from it. "Let's make this clear, you don't demand anything from me."

The leader looked a little more closely at her father. It was a cold calculated look, like he wasn't seeing a person, just an obstacle to something he wanted. It reminded her a little of Atlas.

He spoke after he was done with his appraisal. "You're the shark that fixed up the archway. We don't like you comin' through our turf without our say so."

The girl came up beside the leader. "We can gut this fish. I know his type, he's got nothin' between his legs." she whispered loudly. There was a hungry and hate filled look in her eye.

The leader shook his head slightly. "He's no puffer."

Puffer? Puffer fish? That was a fish that made itself look bigger and more threatening than it was. These children had some odd slang terms.

Her father took the initiative. "Make you a deal. I give you this case and you allow me to pass through your territory. And you don't say anything about the girl to anybody."

The leader looked at the case a moment. "What's in there?"

"Cans of meat smuggled from the surface."

A dark haired boy with a club burst out "One of those cans is 80 Ryan's!" While the boy didn't have a poker face, the leader did. She could almost see him considering every angle, but there was no clue as to what he would decide.

"And what if we don't take your deal?"

"What do you think will happen?" Her father said it very plainly. No hint of anger. But somehow it seemed more frightening than if he had threatened them. She knew her father didn't want to hurt these children, but he wasn't bluffing. There was something she was missing, something she didn't know.

"Ok, deal." The leader said. "Put the case down, step back and wait till we're gone shark."

Her father carefully put the case of food down and stepped back. Two of the children grabbed the case of food and carried it away, the others guarding them as they left.

She looked up at her father, but couldn't read his expression. *Booker, what's going on?*

"Just made a deal with a gang."

*Those kids are a gang?*

A look as sadness crept into his expression. "Seen their like before. Orphans, runaways, cast outs. They form gangs or become part of one for protection. Some of the bigger gangs in New York were started by children much like them."

She looked around a little, searching for who her father was talking to. *Isn't there anything we can do to help them?*

"No, won't trust us. Only will trust each other now, if that. Everyone else is an outsider to be used or killed. Only reason they took the deal was because him with the scar realized I could kill all of them easily."

"Daddy, want to go. I don't like it here anymore."

"You're right, time to go." he said as he bent to pick her up.

*So what do you think will happen to them?* She knew the answer, but still had to ask.

"Splicers will get down here sooner or later. Don't give good odds on those kids surviving. Probably what will happen to all the kids not in an enclave."

*More children destroyed by this city.* she said bitterly.

"And not we can do about it."

They didn't talk much more on the way back. Anna asked question though, a LOT of question which her father did his best to answer. Some of them weren't easy to answer either. Her father stopped several times to make sure that they weren't being followed. They spent the rest of the day getting her settled in their new home. The first thing she did was change clothes. A pair of overalls Anna called "blue jeans" and a white blouse. The clothes were a little large, but she had the feeling her father had intentionally gotten them a little oversized. To grow into maybe? She kept her sneakers though.

When she was done she looked more like a boy than a girl with the exception of her hair. If she put it up under a hat or something most people wouldn't realize she was a girl. Until they saw her eyes and realized she was a Little Sister of course. Anna seemed very comfortable with the look though and she felt more comfortable now than she did in that stupid dress.

After they ate the rest of the night was spent rearranging her room. Her father happily complied with her requests. She still wouldn't allow him to take the syringe away though. Unless she was doing something she always carried it and she never let it out of her sight. A result of her conditioning most likely.

Her father still talked to Elizabeth frequently, clearly intent on not making her fell left out or that she was less important now. But the truth of it was that Elizabeth *was* less important now. The construct Anna had built in her mind using the memories of Elizabeth existed to help her father find her. And now they were together again, she had expected that "Elizabeth" would fade away, that Anna would start to forget her. It hadn't happened yet and she was worried that it wouldn't.

She didn't want to remember.

After she went to bed she lay awake for a short time. It had been a long day and she was tired, but it wasn't easy to fall asleep. Being back with her father made her feel much better and at the same time so happy and excited it made it hard to go to sleep. She used the time to think about why "Elizabeth" was still here and what could be done about it. She even tried creating the hotel room she talked to Anna in, but it didn't work.

Finally she went to sleep.

…

After they ate breakfast the next morning, it was time for chores. Basically they involved cleaning up their new "home". Sweeping, some dusting and the like. Before they started though, he warned her that she was to stay away from some of the more dangerous tools that he had put in one corner. But she just HAD to go over and take a look at them.

"Anna." her father said in the tone of an adult talking to a naughty child. She turned around to look at him. He wasn't even looking in her direction. She turned back and reached up to pick up one of the tools.

"What did I say Anna." His voice was authoritative, but not hard. "Those can hurt you and you are to stay away from them."

How DID he do that? She was certain he hadn't turned around to look at her! She frowned and stepped back from the tools. "Yes sir." She sounded both sad and repentant.

*She calls you sir?*

"Only when she's done something she knows she's not to do."

*I really don't understand why we are doing chores.*

"Need to be done." She thought a moment. Her father had cleaned his daughters room, the washroom and around where he slept, but not much more. He had deliberately left things dirty for when Anna came. These chores weren't really about cleaning, but making things more normal for Anna.

She walked over to him. She was puzzled something. "Are you talking to Elizabeth?"

"Yes, I am."

"I don't see her. Where is she?" Don't ask about Elizabeth she tried telling Anna for all the good it did.

Her father looked behind her and little to her left. "She's right... there." He blinked several time.

She looked around. "Don't see her."

Her father shook his head violently and squeezed his eyes close. He even took a half step to steady himself.

He was saying something but she couldn't hear it.

*Not there, not real, she's not there.*

He was using the Communication Plasmid? That didn't make sense.

Her father stood up straight after a moment and gave an apologetic half smile. "Sorry, what did you ask again?"

Anna hid her worry. "What's next?"

"That table there." he said as he pointed. He didn't remember what Anna had asked him or of his attack. But she heard him through the Plasmid. Could his delusion be growing into some kind of split in his mind?

After chores were done her father started reading the history book to her. That was going to have to how her education was for the time being since she couldn't read. Then it was lunch and some playtime until dinner time. Her father was a little better at cooking than she expected, but there was only some much one could do with canned soup, vegetables and potted meat. But her belly was full and she was happy.

Constants, Variables and even being a Little Sister seemed far away for a little while. But she knew it wouldn't last.

After dinner her father taught her board game called Monopolies. She had heard of it, but playing games had not been something she had time for while she had been hunting Comstock. The game was based on Rapture with different location on the board named for parts of the city. Squares represented different sections of the city, power, food, air and more. There wasn't a square of ADAM though. The goal was to gain control of as much as one could and form monopolies. The greedier you were the better, the perfect game for Rapture.

As they played she realized that her father wasn't trying as hard as he could. He wasn't making it easy for her, but he wasn't trying to win. He was trying to make it a challenge for Anna, but still fun as well. After buying up the last square for Arcadia she looked at her father and her eyes became worried.

"Are you ok, daddy?" *Booker, you're bleeding.*

His hand automatically went to his nose and his fingers came away bloody. As he got out his handkerchief he told her he was ok. This wasn't the same kind of nosebleed one got from Tear Sickness and it lasted nearly fifteen minutes before it finally stopped. All the time her father denied he was in any real trouble.

Bleeding from the nose, ears or gums was a side effect of ADAM use.

They finished the game and it was time for bed. As she lay down she heard her father disassembling and cleaning his autopistol. Her father was getting sicker and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. Their only hope right now was to find Tenenbaum, not only to cure her of being a Little Sister, but to cure her father of ADAM sickness.

If there was a cure.

She remembered that there would be a cure for the Little Sisters, but she couldn't recall seeing even a hint of a cure for ADAM Sickness. The only possible cure they had even heard about was the one that Cilia Canfield had been working one. But she had never come close to finishing her work and she never would after her father had been forced to kill her to keep Prosperity Way from being burned down by her madness.

It was some time before she fell asleep.

…

She was awake. Why? There wasn't any light coming in from door so her father was not yet awake. It must be the middle of the night. She sat up in bed, she was worried.

"Daddy's sick." she stated plainly. 'Yes, he is Anna.' she told her even though she knew she couldn't hear her.

She climbed out of bed and in the darkness pulled on the oversized housecoat her father had bought for her. Unlike the oversized clothes, this was oversized because he couldn't find anything smaller. The glow from her eyes made it so she could see a little. After putting on her sneakers and picking up her syringe, she snuck out to where he father lay sleeping.

He had left a light burning in a lamp on the other side of the room so she could see fairly well. She sat down on the floor a short distance away and watched her father. He occasionally would move and twitch before quieting down again. A drop of blood came from his nose.

"He's hurt." she whispered to herself so not to wake him. She watched with growing fear as more blood came from his nose and dripped down his cheek. She went to get up and the syringe tapped the leg of the chair next to her.

In the darkness she looked at the syringe, then started to smile. 'What is she thinking?'

"Works for Mr. Bubbles."

What works for Mr. Bubbles? What was she planning?

She rolled up the left sleeve of the housecoat and her nightgown. Her mind flashed back to Suchong's lab in Apollo Square, the dying Bouncer and the two Little Sisters.

NO! You could kill him!

She inserted the syringe into her arm. It hurt, but she didn't make a sound or even seem that discomforted by it.

'Please stop. Anna! Listen to me!' She couldn't hear her! She can't do this!

Slowly she filled the syringe.

*Booker! Wake up!* He didn't seem to hear her.

Please, stop. Please!

She walked over to her father and moved his arm a little and pushed the sleeve of his pajamas aside to expose his forearm. Why didn't he wake up! Stop, don't do this. Please. It will kill him.

Dad, PLEASE wake up!

Then she stuck the syringe into her father's arm and injected its glowing contents.

No! STOP!

Immediately her father started shaking, a moment later he started to violently quake. A fit of some kind.

Horrified, she stepped back and dropped the syringe.

"I think did something very bad."

End Chapter 63


	64. Chapter 64

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 64

-Booker-

Everything hurt. His head hurt, his arms hurt, his legs hurt, his bones hurt.

Felt like his HAIR hurt.

Hard to think. ANNA! Where was she? No. She was safe. Where were?… Rapture.

Damn.

Why did he feel so bad? Felt like every hangover and fever he's ever had rolled into one.

He spent several moments putting things back together. Not Tear Sickness at least.

Heard something, someone moving about?

He opened his eyes. Or tried to. Lot harder than it should be. Finally he cracked them open. Couldn't see anything, to bright.

"DADDY!" Something heavy landed on him. "I'msorryI'msorryIdidn'tmeanitI'msorry!"

Anna.

His arm felt like it weighed a ton, but he put it around his daughter to comfort her. "I'm ok." He finally managed to croak out.

*No, you are not!*

Elizabeth? Sounded like she was across the room or something.

*How do you feel? Does anything hurt. Can you move?*

Anna was crying now. "I'm sorry, I thought it help. I didn't…"

"It's ok, going to be fine Anna." He gave her a weak hug.

Took moment to remember how to use the Communication Plasmid. *Everything hurts. What happened?*

*I'll explain later. Can you move?*

Bossy. She was as worried as Anna was. He tested his fingers and toes. Everything still worked. Didn't think he had enough strength to sit up, so didn't try. The pain was fading now, becoming a dull ache.

He looked around a little. They were still in their "new home" and he was in his bed. Anna looked exhausted. What happened? How long had it been? Better answer the question.

*Everything seems to work. Hurting less. What happened?*

She hesitated. *Elizabeth, What Happened?* Anna was looking at him. He reached up with his left hand and wiped away a tear.

*You've been exposed to a huge dose of ADAM.* she told him reluctantly. *It nearly killed you. You stopped breathing at least three times and I think your heart stopped once.*

*ADAM? From where?* What didn't she want to tell him?

*It was, it was Anna. She knew you were sick. She thought that she could heal you by… she injected you with the ADAM in her blood, just as if you were a Big Daddy.*

What?

"You're not mad at me?" his daughter asked.

"No, not mad at you."

*It's been a day and a half since then. She hasn't moved from your side.*

"Could you get me some water please?"

"Yeah!" she said as she jumped up and raced to the washroom. Just the thought of food made him feel sick, but thought he could handle water.

He slowly leveraged himself up. *Doesn't look like she's slept.*

*No, I haven't slept much.* 'Did she say "I"?' *She used four First Aid Kits on you to keep you alive. Even so, if you weren't so stubborn and all the Infusions you've been drinking, you would be dead two or three times over.*

*Only four?*

*She made a mistake trying to figure out how to use the first one.*

Anna came back with a cup of water. He took it from her with and then almost dropped it. The back of his hand looked normal.

"Thank you." As he sipped the water he reached up and felt the left side of his face. He could feel again. Now that he thought about it, had the vague feeling something was missing. He brought up the Possession Plasmid.

Nothing happened.

He tried the rest of his Plasmids and the Charge Vigor. Nothing.

*Is something wrong Booker?*

*Don't have any Plasmids.*

*Hmm.* Anna was looking at him with a worried but slightly puzzled expression.

"Anna, when was the last time you ate?"

"Um, not sure."

"Fix yourself a sandwich and then off to bed."

"But…"

"I'll be fine. Now get going. Can talk more when we both feel better."

Anna's shoulders slumped a little. "Yes, Daddy." and went to the cooking area.

He wasn't really sure he could stay sitting up much longer.

*Booker, can you see me?*

*Yeah, making a sandwich.*

*Can you see Elizabeth?* There was a note impatience in her voice.

Hadn't realized he didn't see the hallucination any more. *No, don't see it.*

*It?*

*Wasn't really seeing… Damn, thought it was real for the past couple days.* Must have been terrible for her! *I'm sorry, I…*

*It wasn't your fault Booker.* she told him gently. *Can you look at your leg and tell me what you see?*

Leg. She meant where it had swollen up. He really didn't think he could, but he reached down and felt it. *Swelling gone.*

*Does the skin look normal?*

*Try to look at it I'll fall over. Can't you see?*

*No. I don't see through your eyes anymore. When you talk it sound faint, like you're some distance away.*

*Same here. You have an idea what happened?*

Anna finished making her sandwich and went to wash off the knife she had used. Must be peanut butter and jam.

*I think I do. You're no longer a splicer.*

No longer a splicer? *What? How?*

*Remember the Audio Diary from Cilia Canfield we found in Suchong's lab in Point Prometheus?*

Ann came back from washing the knife and started to eat her sandwich.

*Yeah. Said you could cure ADAM sickness with a dose of ADAM and pre-splice blood. But I didn't get injected with any blood.*

*Yes you did. Anna's blood.* That made his stomach do a flip. *You're my father. I got half my genes from you. That must have been close enough to reset the cells in your body back to what they had originally been. I suspected that's what happened when I saw that you hand had suddenly returned to normal.*

*But the ADAM is still there.*

*Yes, but as long as you don't go splicing again, you should remain stable. Congratulations Booker, you're the first person ever to be cured of being a splicer.*

*A cure for ADAM addiction.* He shook his head a little.

*It's far from certain it would work a second time and it could very well kill you even if it did. I suspect much of the reason you are still alive is all the Infusions you've drank.*

*Believe me, not planning on splicing again.* It was getting hard to stay awake. *Can get by with my Shield and Gear.*

*Even without your Plasmids you're more than a match the splicers we've seen I will admit.* Anna had finished her sandwich and put her plate aside.

"Anna, we can wash that tomorrow. Go to bed." *You too Elizabeth.*

Anna yawned. "Yes, Daddy. Goodnight"

*I think I'm old enough to know when I should go to bed.* she told him with mock indignation. Then more softly. *Goodnight Booker.*

"Goodnight." He started to lie back down, but was asleep before his head hit the pillow.

…

Woke up slowly. Focused on the clock across the room as he did. Nearly 9 AM. Had slept for nearly sixteen hours. Felt a little stronger now and hungry. Starving in fact. Good sign. Door to Anna's room was still closed.

He went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. Looked so pale he almost didn't believe it was him in the mirror. Easy to believe he had nearly died more than once being cured of ADAM sickness.

He spent some time getting cleaned up and taking a sponge bath. Far from the first time he had taken one, but he would have much preferred a bathtub.

He dressed in some work clothes to save wear on his suit and brought up the Cat's Feet Gear. That way there was less chance to disturb Anna. Then it was off to make some oatmeal on the cook stove. He really didn't trust his belly that much yet, but oatmeal should be ok. He made sure to make enough for both of them.

He had just finished eating and already felt like he needed to rest again. Then Anna cracked open the door to her room. Must have smelled the food.

"Breakfast's ready Anna." he called to her.

"Daddy!" She ran out over and all but tackled him. Then she looked up at him with her big eyes. "You all better now?"

"Feeling better, but it's going to be a little while before I totally recover."

She took a step back and looked down. "I'm sorry."

"I'll live. Don't do Anything like that again without asking, understand."

"Yes, sir."

"Now go eat your breakfast."

*Is she always so rambunctious in the morning?* Elizabeth asked in an amused tone as Anna started shoveling oatmeal into her mouth.

*Good morning Elizabeth. And yes she is.*

*And how are you feeling?*

*Still weak. Going to be a spell before back to normal.*

*Huh. Oatmeal tastes a lot better warm than cold.* *Songbird would bring it to me sometimes, but it was always cold.*

*You like it with strawberries on top. So how is it we can still talk?*

*It's possible that some remnant of the Communication Plasmid may still be at work, but that seems unlikely. Let's try a little experiment.*

She was almost done eating her oatmeal already. "Want some more Anna?"

She looked up and happily nodded. *Going to have to wait a moment.* he told Elizabeth as he went back to the cook stove.

*I just wanted you to move around some.*

*Any reason?*

*Anna was given the Communication Plasmid as part of these fools' experiments at imprinting. I think that the farther you get away from me the less signal I will be able to pick up.*

He started boiling more water for the oatmeal. *If I get far enough away, you won't be able to hear me.*

*Correct. I expect you will be able still hear me for a greater distance than I will you. When we both had "transmitters" and "receivers" we could talk to each other from miles away. Now the only reason we can talk is because I'm "tuned" to you.*

*Like a radio.*

*Wouldn't be a surprise if radio waves or something like them were used.*

Something was bothering him. *When you're cured of being a Little Sister, what about the Plasmids they gave you?*

She paused a moment. *I don't think I would have gone through all I did unless I was certain the Little Sisters would be completely cured. That includes all the Plasmids we've been exposed to.*

*So Tenanbaum will have a cure for ADAM Sickness.*

*I don't know. From what I little I remember reading the slugs keep the Little Sisters healthy while they are producing ADAM. That would extend to preventing damage to her genes. That's why Anna's blood was able to reset the ADAM in your body. Her genes haven't been damaged by the ADAM.*

*So curing a Little Sisters is a lot easier curing a splicer.*

*Yes. After the slug is removed, it's just a matter of the setting the ADAM in their bodies to act like the rest of the host's normal cells. With splicers there are no undamaged genes to work with. You would need to find the memory the ADAM has for the hosts original genetic structure and that would be very difficult. With you, the ADAM infused blood taken from me was able to locate the memory in the ADAM of your original genetic structure and start the process of resetting the ADAM.

*I really didn't understand much of that.* He felt embarrassed at having to ask, but he didn't really know hardly anything about what she was talking about. He wasn't entirely sure what genetics where.

*Um, let's put it like this. ADAM copies all sorts of information and locks it away. If you find the right lock and open it you can release that information. My genes were close enough to open the right lock.*

*That I understood.*

*I wish Fink had talked more with Comstock about ADAM.*

*Hardly mentioned anything. Just said he found a way for people to be given extra ordinary abilities. Comstock went along with it since he "foresaw" Crows, Firemen, Shields and the rest.*

*Shields? Those must be from one of the realities were Booker never got his Elizabeth out of her tower. So what exactly were these Shields?*

*"The Shields of the Founders". They used something like Return to Sender. They could reflect what someone shot at them back at the shooter or those nearby.*

*Glad we didn't see any of those.*

*Had their weaknesses. Couldn't reflect Vigors or explosives going off nearby.*

He finished cooking the oatmeal and spooned it into Anna's bowel. There was a little left over which he put in his own bowel. Still a little hungry.

*So, when are you going to send Mary a letter?*

*Ready to leave already?*

*It would be nice to have a proper bathtub and refrigerator.*

*Somehow don't think that's the real reason.*

*Safely in numbers. And you can't look for Tenenbaum when you have to watch over me all the time.*

He had started to wonder a little about finding this Tenenbaum. He had no contacts in Rapture, didn't know very much about her. Didn't even have a good picture of her. Still had to try.

Even without going to look for Tenenbaum joining up with Clarice's people was the best thing to do. More protection for Anna, a real bed, maybe better food. More to do certainly, maybe other children play with. A bored Anna wasn't the best thing for getting good night's sleep.

*Be a couple days before I'm ready to fight splicers.*

"All done!" Anna told him. He had finished eating as well.

"Let's wash the dishes then."

He spent the next two days resting, recovering and trying to keep Anna busy. The first thing they did was build a makeshift ice box to keep food cold. Should have thought of it before. And both Anna and Elizabeth wanted milk to drink. To make ice, he put water in a pan and used the Chemical Thrower. Then he had to spend the next half hour making sure Anna didn't decide to trying to play with the Thrower and either freeze everything or start a fire.

Elizabeth questioned him on why he was making the ice box when they would be leaving in a day or two. He told her while he should be well enough for a trip up to the Jet Postal up on the Way, walking across Rapture was still going to be a little much for him.

When he went to throw out the sawdust and scrap wood from the ice box he found Anna's syringe. Elizabeth said she had thrown it out. Looked like she had hit on something to break it before throwing it in the trash. He knew she hadn't been angry at the syringe, but at herself.

Something for both of them needed to continue working on.

Then came the day he would make the walk up to the Way. He hated to leave her alone even for just the hour or so he expected to be gone, but taking her with him was out of the question.

As he put on his mask Anna came up to him. "Why do you have that?"

"The mask? It keeps a very bad man from knowing I'm here."

"Can't you beat him up?"

"No, this bad man sends other bad people to do his dirty work. Better if I just avoid getting in to fights if I can."

"Yes, daddy."

"Good. Now You be a good girl stay out of trouble while I'm gone."

Anna nodded her head and smiled just a little too much. She already had something planned. At least she really couldn't hurt herself.

He closed and locked the door. He didn't want to leave, but there was nothing for it. He hadn't felt strong enough to take all his weapons with him and had left the Thrower behind. But he had made sure it couldn't cause any harm.

*Could you talk or something while you're walking to Prosperity Way? It should give me a good way to figure out what the range is.*

He started humming an old marching song he had learned in the Army. He had gotten only thirty feet down the corridor when: *Booker, Anna is looking at the Chemical Thrower.* It sounded as if she were farther away now. But that didn't hide the small note of irritation in her voice.

He stopped walking for a moment. *Don't worry. Unloaded it and disconnected a couple lines so it won't work.*

*She hasn't tried to pick it up yet.*

*Huh. That's an improvement.*

*What do you mean an improvement? You told her not to touch it.*

*Has she touched it?*

*No, not yet.* Elizabeth was clearly both puzzled and a little suspicious.

*That's a lot better than she used to be. Six months ago she would be trying to take it apart by now.*

*You've been trying to teach her not to be curious?* She didn't sound happy about that.

*Teaching her not to be quite so impulsive. Don't think I could teach her not to be curious if I wanted to.* He started walking again.

About 50 feet from the office Elizabeth called out faintly *I can't hear you anymore.*

He stopped and walked back a few feet. *How about now?*

*I can hear you, but just barely. How far are you away?*

*Range seems to be about 50 feet. What's Anna doing?*

*Looking at the Chemical Thrower from every angle she can, but still hasn't touched it.*

*See what happened when I get back.* He turned and started back towards the Way.

When he got to the Way little had changed since the last time. Some of the dead bodies were gone, but he saw two new ones as he walked to the Jet Postal. He sent the letter off to Mary then started for the Circus of Values.

He was most of the way there when a fight broke out between two splicers standing right in front of the Circus machine. They were both Thugish, a man with a golf club and woman with a fire poker. They traded and dodged blows, all the time screaming insults at each other. He took cover near the burned out remains of the Pharaoh's Fortune and watched. The one with the golf club jumped back and hit another splicer who had been walking past the fight.

"Don't touch me!" the third splicer screamed. His had shot out and a piece of broken concrete sprung from the ground to the palm of his hand. An Eve Addict. Out of habit he brought out the Research Camera and started taking pictures. The piece of concrete slammed into the splicer with the club and bowled him over.

The one with the fire poker screamed in a high voice. "He's MINE!" and charged the EVE Addict.

The Eve Addict picked up a piece of wood with the Telekinesis Plasmid, but the female splicer was on top of him before he shoot it at her. She got one good hit in before he shocked her with Electro Bolt. By now the other splicer with the golf club was on his feet and attacked him as well. The two Thugish splicers then proceeded to beat the third to death before turning on each other again.

In the end the female was the only one still standing. She stumbled down the South Fork of the Way down towards the long closed bookstore. Safe now.

He quickly walked to the Circus of Values. The fire had gutted Cho's, but they had left he Circus machine undamaged. Those things were tough.

"BOSTON!" came a twisted scream of hate from the upper level near the destroyed diner.

He looked over just in time to see a cloud of ice crystals vanish. That had sounded like Missy. He put his back to the Circus machine.

This was bad. He hadn't fully recovered yet and didn't have any First Aid Kits.

Where is she?

He saw a cloud form near the Little Sister Vent. He fired of a bust from the Tommy Gun then dodged to the left to avoid two pieces of ice. Still a little shaky, only half his burst hit. Need something easy to aim. Shotgun. Exploding Buck. Need time to reload.

" . ! !" Missy screamed. She wore the same clothes she had on the last time he had seen her days ago. Dirty, blood stained and torn. Bandage on upper left arm, another on her right leg, both of which were soaked with dried blood. The right side of her face looked like it was starting to melt and blood dribbled from the corner of her mouth. Even from a distance the madness in her eyes was apparent.

He switched to Speed Demon and ran behind the remains of the hot dog stand. Went back to Fleet Feet again as he reloaded the shotgun.

Had just finished when Missy appeared. He fired the shotgun and his Shield took a hit from a piece of ice in return. Slow, should have been able to avoid that. She vanished again, quickly reappearing near the Circus machine, still on fire.

She beat at the flames a moment, then hurled more ice at him with a wordless scream. He managed to avoid them and moved to get closer. Before he could, Missy vanished again. Where is she this time?

Down by the Diner. Couldn't let this fight go on much longer, he could feel himself slowing down little by little. Lightening shot from the Grabber, shocking the madwoman and he used his Speed Gear again to get close before he fired.

He wasn't fast enough and the shock wore off before he could fire again. Two pieces of ice slammed into him breaking his Shield. He fired into the burning splicer, knocking her back. She hit the wall of the diner and collapsed on the ground.

Dead.

He stood for a moment breathing hard as the corpse continued to burn. 'Defiantly needed more rest.'

He hadn't wanted Missy's death, but she hadn't given him any choice. He went to the Circus machine and bought a First Aid Kit which he immediately used. Better. Then got five more. Not much in the way of food in this one other than Pep Bars, crackers and a Creme-Filled Cakes.

The diner? While it had been shot up, still might be something there.

He found several cans of soup, fruit and vegetables in the storeroom. Too bad they were a couple of cans of beets. Anna would just have to eat them if they got low on food. As he looked he heard some kind of motor start up. Took him a moment to realize what he had thought was a door was a refrigerator large enough to walk into. Inside he found dozens of containers for food, four bottles of milk and a body dressed in a waitress uniform with an Audio Diary nearby. He quickly took the milk and Diary. He checked another door and found it had been a freezer. It had failed and everything inside had melted and spoiled. Time to go.

_Nelly Pickman: Hide_

_February 27, 1959_

_They're all trying to kill each other. Even Arti! He... he had been so nice before. Now he's like some kind of Animal. I'm SO scared! I hope none of them find me in here. It's so cold! But if I leave they'll find me. Please, someone help me. I don't want to die. I don't want to.. (cries)_

'Looks like someone found her.' he thought sadly.

As he walked back the replayed the fight with Missy in his head. Something was wrong. Had been too easy. A few machine gun rounds and two hits with the shotgun? And he had seen where she would arrive just like with the other Houdini's. Were the bonuses from the Research Camera still working? Was going to have ask Elizabeth about this.

When he was close enough, he called to Elizabeth. *I'm on my way back. Managed to find some milk.*

*Good. Anna isn't very happy about being left alone.*

*Just her?*

*Hum. Don't suppose either of us are happy about it.*

*Did she do anything to the Thrower?*

*Uh, no.* She really didn't sound that convincing.

*Let me guess. She put her finger on it for a minute then went to do something else.*

*How did you know that!?*

*Know my daughter. She can be a little… defiant at times.* Best break the news now. *Missy saw me up on the Way.*

*She attacked you again.*

*Yeah. Madder than before. Didn't even try to retreat.*

*It was her choice.* she said with a hint of sadness.

He was at the door now and unlocked it. He hadn't even opened the door and Anna was standing there with a big smile on her face. "Daddy!" He bent down and picked her up.

"You been a good girl?"

She looked uncertain for a moment then smiled again before it fell apart. "No, I touched that thing." She pointed to the Thrower.

"Do you know why I told you not to touch it?"

"Could hurt me." she said sadly.

"Yes. There are a lot of things here that are dangerous and you have to do what I say to stay safe."

"I'm sorry." she said looking at him with big eyes. Their being yellow didn't change how sorry she looked.

"Now go sit on you bed for five minutes and don't do anything."

"Yes, sir." He put her down and she slowly walked to her bed.

*You make her sit on her bed as punishment?*

*Certainly not going to hit her. Sitting and doing nothing is going to make her think about what she did. And she Hates not doing anything. But you're not being punished so we can still talk.*

*Oh Thank You So Very Much.*

He suppressed a chuckle at the sarcastic tone in her voice and went to put the milk away.

*When Missy attacked, noticed something odd. The "bonuses" I got from the Research Camera are still there.*

*Hmm. Let me think.*

Anna's sit down time was over before she called him back.

*Using the Research Camera should be safe. The Camera seems to copy information directly into the ADAM's "memory". If copying and storing information made ADAM unstable, it wouldn't be able to store anything for long.*

*You sure?*

*Yes. If ADAM didn't stay stable when copying information, you wouldn't have been cured.*

That was a load off his mind. *Make things a bit easier then.*

*I wish you could have Anna take a picture of you, but I wouldn't be able to read the results.*

*Enough to know I shouldn't get sick again. 'Bout time for lunch.*

End Chapter 64


	65. Chapter 65

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 65

Anna/Elizabeth

It had been five days since her father's first expedition to Prosperity Way. Since then he had spent much of the time recovering his strength and being with her. The message Mary had sent back was that they would have a place for her and her father, but warned that some of the newer members of the group were not overly pleased by the thought of their being there. Or rather a Little Sister being there.

Her father had made a second trip out to Prosperity Way three days after the first to buy ammunition and pick up some tools and supplies. He didn't get all he would have liked, but he thought it would be enough. To reduce the chances of running into hostile splices he had gone very early in the morning. He told her that two had still attacked him.

Insomnia is common problem among splicers.

The whole time Anna was generally happy and extremely active. Happy she understood, but she didn't remember being so rambunctious that at her age. Of course being imprisoned in the Tower may have had something to do with it. She loved to hear her father play the guitar and he spent time teaching her to play. And he had been right, she wasn't very good, but thought it more the result of her hands being too small rather than a lack of skill. She was starting to sing now and it was surprising how fast she picked up on many of the songs.

Maybe not such a surprise. She had learned those same songs while she had been in the Tower.

When her father was busy with working on something or getting a little extra sleep, Anna took it upon herself to dismantle one of the drill presses in the workshop to see how it worked.

Putting back together proved much more difficult than taking it apart.

One night after playing a game of Monopolies, Anna suddenly stated: "This game isn't very fair."

"You won didn't you?"

"Not what I mean." Hmm. What was she talking about?

"So what do you mean?" Her father didn't know what Anna was thinking any more than she did.

"When someone gets a monopolies, they can do anything they want with it. Make everyone pay lots of money or not allow anyone to have it. That's not right."

Her father looked pleased by what she had said. "No, no it isn't. I guess you don't want to play this game anymore."

"Checkers!" she suggested.

"See if I can find some."

*Booker, who made that game?* She had a suspicion of who it was.

He looked at the box. *Ryan Amusements, a division of Ryan Industries.*

*As I suspected. The game is propaganda for Ryan's view of the world.*

*Seems that she learned just the opposite of what Ryan wanted.*

*She can be as defiant of authority as I was.*

*Only the "authority" she should be defiant of.*

When the day came to leave the office and travel to Athena's Glory, her father showed her what he had been working on. It was kind of a harness so she could ride on his back.

Anna looked at it, but didn't quite understand it.

"If we need to move fast you can hold onto these straps as I run. That way my hands will be free." She wasn't sure who he was addressing. Both of them probably. "And here is your hat." he told her as he handed her an oversized newsboy cap.

"Cowboy hat!" she demanded.

"Couldn't find one."

She frowned for a moment then tried the newsboy cap on.

"Put your pony tail up in it."

It took her a moment to get her hair all arranged and under the cap. When she was done he picked her up so she could look at herself in the mirror in the bathroom. Anna made a satisfied sound that showed she approved of how it looked. If you didn't get a good look at her eyes you would be hard pressed to tell that she was a Little Sister.

She had an idea about that.

*Welder's goggles?* Her father was rather surprised when she told him.

*Yes. She was playing around with them when you were up at Prosperity Way last time.*

"Anna, did you find something that would cover your eyes?"

She thought for a moment, before starting looking around.

*You let Anna figure things out for herself a great deal.* She was looking through one of the lockers now. She had left the goggles on a table on the far side of the room though.

He didn't say anything for a moment. *Guess I do. Seems lot better than trying to force her.*

*And what happens when she makes a mistake?*

*Can still learn from mistakes. Sometimes learn a more from a mistake. Best to learn from the small ones than from ones like I made.*

Anna stopped looking in the locker and walked towards the other side of the room. *Booker, we both made mistakes.*

*I figure this was the best way to make sure it didn't happen again. Don't know if it would work for others, but seems to work for you.*

"Found them!" she said loudly and put the goggles on.

"Can you see with those on?" her father asked.

"A little dark, but ok."

*She sees better than she should given how dark these lenses are. You don't see her eyes do you?*

*No, they...*

"How do I look?" she called out as she ran towards the bathroom.

When he got there her father picked her up so she could look in the mirror again. Anna tilted her head back and forth and turned it from side to side. She looked a little odd, but given the state of Rapture these days that might prove to be an advantage.

"Let's take a little walk first."

"Ok! Where are we going?"

"Prosperity Way. Going to send off our clothes to where we will be living from now on."

"Aw, already?" she said a little unhappily.

"Remember, no talking unless I say it's safe."

"I know. No talking and don't go looking at stuff." She somehow said it as she were a little bored and at the same time put upon.

*Our going to Prosperity Way is a test to see how well my "disguise" works?*

*Yeah. Thought it best to find out if the splicers notice Anna before we're were halfway across Rapture.*

They left for Prosperity Way and to her surprise Anna behaved herself rather well. Occasionally she lifted up the goggles to get a better look at something, but didn't leave Booker's side. When she wanted his attention she would pull on his sleeve.

*Not going to get anything from the cache?*

*No. If things go bad at Athena's Glory, like to have a fallback.*

*You think there will be problems with Clarice's people?*

*Hope not, but rather not have to put all my eggs in that basket. When it's safe I can come empty it.*

They were almost to the Way when Anna realized something and pulled on his sleeve. "You forgot the guitar!"

"It's too big to send ahead. I'll come back for it a couple of days."

"Awww."

When they got to Prosperity Way it was a little quieter than she expected it to be. They only saw seven splicers and only one took enough notice of them to approach. This splicer had minimal ADAM scars and wore a battered but expensive looking suit. The thing about him though was his eyes. They looked like those of a dead fish and they were focused on her. She stepped back a little and gave the splicer a defiant glare. Her goggles probably ruined the effect though.

"Leave. Now." When her father spoke the splicer looked up at him. He twitched oddly and gave a small laugh. After a moment he walked away. When the splicer was far enough away, they continued towards the Jet Postal.

*I'm surprised you didn't shoot him.*

*You've seen more than enough. Rather not add more.*

*At least we know this disguise works well enough.*

*Not totally safe.*

*I'm a lot safer than I would be.*

They sent their clothes and a few other things to Mary and started back towards Fortune Avenue and the Blue Ascot. They would be taking the same route they used when they escorted Lisa Mayhew to Athena's Glory.

Anna stayed close to her father. She was being very watchful of what was around her and was rarely more than a few feet away. It was to be expected she supposed. She had spent something like two months as a Little Sister and was well aware that people would try to harm her.

Her father had made her understand that if a fight occurred she was to hide. Even if it meant crawling into a Little Sister Vent again. It made her wish she had her syringe for a moment. It gave her something to defend herself with and Anna had already proven she was willing to use it.

She wondered if she should ask her father about some kind of weapon. Best if she didn't. She didn't think he would want her to hurt anyone. That was his job and she was sure he didn't want her to have any more blood on her hands.

When that got near Fortune Avenue her father reloaded his autopistol. She thought with normal ammunition, but Anna was looking around a lot and she wasn't sure.

When the door opened he told Anna to stay close. They quickly walked towards the passage that would take them to the Blue Ascot. None of the child gang came out to meet them and her father relaxed a little when they left.

He relaxed a little too soon.

Half way down the passage to the Blue Ascot three of the gang came down the tunnel from the other end. The girl and two of the older boys. The boys had knives and the girl carried a pistol.

"Well, looky there! Guess the big man's really into little boys." the girl sneered.

What? 'That little...!' She clamped down on her anger. Anna didn't and blurted out "You're a mean little bitch!"

"Anna." her father said in a displeased tone.

"What did she say?!" the girl yelled and started to raise the pistol she held. Her father was much, much faster and had the autopistol out and pointed at the girl before her gun was halfway up. Her father didn't fire and girl froze, a look of anger and fear on her face. The two boys didn't look like they wanted to be anywhere near either of them.

Then her father did something unexpected. He lifted up his left hand. Then there was a pistol shot.

The girl flinched at the sound of the gunshot and the two boys jumped slightly. What did he do?

Her father held out his hand, making a show of it to the children. "You can't hurt me. I can easily hurt you. Go. Now."

The two boys took off running. The girl stood her ground. "You fucking shark! You're all the same!"

"Follow your friends." her father ordered.

The girl raised the pistol. Was she crazy? Her hand started to shake and her father took a step forward. That was it. The girl's resolve broke and she took off running after the two boys.

Her father let his breath out and his shoulders slumped a little. Then he turned to Anna and didn't seem very happy. "What did I tell you?"

She looked down. "That I wasn't supposed to talk."

"Yes. And?"

"I shouldn't use such language. But..."

"No, buts about it. By calling her a name you made things worse."

"I'm sorry."

"I know you are. But sometimes being sorry isn't enough. Nothing happened this time, but what about the next?"

"Yes sir."

"Ok, Let's get going."

*Booker, what did you do to scare those kids?*

*Uh, shot myself in the hand."

*You WHAT!?*

*Knew it wouldn't get through my Shield. Figured it was the best way to show those kids they couldn't do anything to me.*

*That's why you changed ammunition earlier.* The idea of shooting ones' self to prove a point was unreal. But then she never had a Shield like her father did. *What if Anna had seen you do that?*

*I was careful and don't plan on repeating that trick. Wouldn't work on most down here anyway.*

They were inside the Blue Ascot now. Two splicers were there, but didn't pay them any attention. The three gang members were nowhere in sight.

*Why does that girl hate you so much? You never did anything to her.*

*Likely hates all "older" men. Might have been beaten by one or forced to be a prostitute.*

*A…? There are no laws against something like that in Rapture.* It was a sickening thought.

*Laws don't stop people like that.*

*If there is a profit to be made, there will be men to make it.* she said bitterly.

*And women.*

*Women?*

*Many brothels are owned or run by women.*

*And how do you know so much about who owns brothels?* A thought crossed her mind. *Don't tell me you met my mother in one.*

*No, I didn't. Tell you how I did meet her someday when you're older. A lot older. As for brothels, you know my work took me to such places often. Sometimes the owners even hired me.*

*Really.* She put a disbelieving tone in her voice. Somehow she knew he wasn't a patron of such places, but it was a bit fun to bug him about it. *I wonder what "Sally who worked on Houston Street" would say about that.*

*Would have told you same thing. Course it never happened now.*

They were out of the Blue Ascot now and in the Tunnels.

*She wasn't working on Houston Street this time?*

*She was only six or seven years old when we left.*

*She was that young?*

*Some of the girls working in such places were a lot younger.*

When no one was around Anna asked "Are we there yet?"

"Going to take some time, Anna." he father told her. "I'll let you know when we're close."

The came to a large junction between two Tunnels. The way to Tantalus was ahead, but they took a left and walked north. They saw a number of splicers, but most just ignored them. A few did take a closer look at her, but it seemed more idle curiosity than anything. It was strange to see a child out in Rapture these days. The arsenal her father openly carried seemed to keep them from looking to closely.

They saw dead bodies along the way, but they didn't look like "angels" to her and she realized that she wasn't seeing the dream like version of Rapture either. There were some hints of it, things looked new until she got closer to them and then they would become worn or damaged. She noticed that when she focused her attention on something the things around it became more dream like and what she was focused on more "real".

While they walked she worked at figuring why might be happening. It was clear that the conditioning was less effective than she could ever have hoped. And it just wasn't her natural stubbornness either. There was something more. It was almost like she had some sort of protection. But why…?

Comstock.

That was it. They must use at least some of the same "techniques" to make Little Sisters as Comstock used to try and turn her into the Prophet's Heir. They hadn't worked the first time and her mind certainly would be even more resistant the second time around.

That explained some of it, but not all.

It wasn't difficult to understand why suppressing her memory didn't work. Plasmids meant for the mind of a child with only a few years of memories would be totally inadequate for suppressing all the memories she had. The memories of the other Elizabeths. Even if she, Anna didn't remember them, they were still there. It would have been like trying to hold back a tidal wave with a bucket of dirt.

That just left why she couldn't read. It must be some form of agnosia. She doubted Suchong did it, so Anna must be doing it, somehow. There was a sign ahead, maybe it was time for a small experiment. She knew from the shape it was for the Rapture Tribune. She tried to see the "R" and immediately everything became unreal. Her father became a dark thing beside her, the walls turned golden as gentle music started to play. Soft looking pillows lay around the floor. There was an angel on the floor ahead with his hands folded on his chest, wearing a clean white suit. He looked so Handsome!

She closed her eyes and grabbed her father's hand while shaking her head violently.

"Anna, what's wrong?"

She lifted up her head and blinked a few times. Everything was normal looking again. "Saw something bad. Better now."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" she smiled back.

That was one experiment she was NOT going to try again! She didn't know how Anna was doing it, but she was filtering out the effects of the Plasmids and conditioning at the expense of her ability to read. Anna probably doesn't know how she's doing it either. The experiment also told her that if she concentrated on something enough it could effect Anna. She would need to be careful.

They were at the Oyster Bay Apartments now.

"Are we there yet?" she asked again.

"Not yet." her father answered without seeming to be bothered.

After a few moments he asked. *You're rather quiet.*

*I've been thinking about something.*

*Huh. Thought you would have said something by now.*

*About what?* She really hadn't been paying attention.

*Seventh time Anna's asked "Are we there yet?"*

*Seventh!* She was thinking for that long? Still had a lot of ground to cover. She wondered how many time she would end up asking her father "Are we there yet?" before they got to Athena's Glory. She hoped it didn't hit twenty.

-Booker-

Ever since Elizabeth had "gone back" to Anna he had noticed that she was acting a little different. As much as he could tell from when she talked. It had been surprisingly easy to get used to having Elizabeth around. He didn't have to careful what he said. Didn't have to worry that she would think him mad if he mentioned Columbia or the Sea of Doors.

He was going to miss that. But he knew that it was best for Anna is she didn't remember. And what was best for her was most important to him.

_The Parasite has his eye on Rapture. Keep your eye on the Parasite._

They went to leave Oyster Bay and heard gunfire. Two pistols, one close, the other farther away. "Over there." he told Anna and pointed to a planter.

As they moved the gunshots got closer. Anna hid behind the planter and he used the Gear to blend into the wall behind him. A moment later a female splicer came through the doors. She wore a tattered dark blue dress with red trim and was half bald from hair loss. She paused a moment and fired off two rounds.

From outside a man yelled "Thief! That's my ADAM! No one steals from Benton Hirschfield! Give It Back!"

"This is my ADAM you bastard! You stole it from ME!" the female splicer yelled back as she ran for cover behind a pillar. Once there she started to reload her pistol.

A male splicer with a black pants and a gold colored vest came through the doors. He wore a butterfly mask and the left sleeve of his shirt had been torn off at the elbow. His left hand and arm were covered with scars and old dried blood.

He fired once more then swore as the next trigger pull made him realize he needed to reload. The other splicer leaned out from the behind the pillar and fired once, hitting the man. He brought up his left hand and screamed in pain as bees ripped through his skin and the swarm moved to attack the female splicer.

The female splicer fired once and missed before the swarm of insects attacked her. "Bees! I hate them! I hate them! Ahh! Get out of my eyes! Get OUT!"

The male splicer had fallen to his knees trying to stop the bleeding from his hand and arm. The other splicer stopped thrashing around long enough and fire once, but missed. A moment later she fell to the floor.

Her killer staggered to his feet. "ADAM. I gotta have my ADAM!" he told himself and started walking unsteadily towards the dead woman. Meanwhile the swarm floated over the dead body as if looking for someone else to attack. It started moving in his direction. No, not towards him, but Anna!

He jumped into the swarm of insects and they immediately attacked. The bees started wearing down his Shield, but he knew they wouldn't be able to get through. The splicer realized he wasn't alone and turned.

"Mine! The ADAM's MINE!" he screamed and raised his left hand. Booker killed him with two rounds from the autopistol. That didn't stop the bees and they continued to attack.

Anna stuck her head out from behind the planter and made a face. "Eww. Bees!"

"Yes Anna, bees. They'll go away shortly. Just stay there." A moment later the swarm vanished with a loud buzzing sound.

"I don't like bees!" she said as she looked around making sure they were gone.

He sighed. "Not fond of them myself either. Let's go."

Soon they came to the Deep Blue Sea Arcade. There was noise coming in from inside. Sounded like someone was playing on one of the machines. He motioned Anna to be quite and to stay where she was while she scouted ahead. With the Cat's Feet Gear active he walked towards the door and heard voices.

A female voice asked "How much longer do you think he will be?"

"I wouldn't be a surprise if he was outside the door listening to us." a male voice answered.

Lutece.

He turned back to Anna. "Come on." He told her and she immediately scampered up to him. "You can talk around these two. Just be careful what you say. And be polite."

*The Luteces?* Elizabeth asked.

*Right the first time.*

They entered the arcade to find Robert Lutece playing a game as Rosalind looked on. A moment later a loud sound came from the machine and "You Lose" flashed in lights on it.

"These "games" are more difficult than they would first appear brother." The female stated.

"Would you care to try to beat my score?" her brother asked as he stepped away from the cabinet.

"Of course." The other said as she took his place.

He and Anna walked up to the pair. Anna was looking at them trying to puzzle them out.

"I must say Mr. DeWitt, you are looking better." The one playing the game told him.

"And you found the girl." There was actually a hint of a smile on his face.

Anna walked up to them. "Of course my daddy found me. He'll always find me!" Robert's eyebrow went up slightly in surprise.

"Anna, what did I say about being polite." he admonished her.

"That is precisely the result so far." the male told them.

"The result of this experiment?" Dealing with these two was enough to make his head hurt.

The female answered. "Until this point. The experiment is yet to conclude."

Trying to get a straight answer out of these two was worse than having a tooth pulled. "And what was the result you have so far?"

The loud sound from the machine was repeated as the lights flashed "You Lose" a second time.

"It appears you did not even come close to my score." the male said with a slightly puzzled tone.

"I had considerably greater distractions." His sister explained.

"Yes, that would have a detrimental effect."

He turned to see what Anna was doing. Her goggles were on her forehead now and she was still looking at both Luteces curiously. "The result?" he asked as he turned back.

When he turned back the male held a clipboard while the female held a large plate.

The male said "Heads", the female "or tails?"

*The Luteces are testing Constants and Variables by having you flip a coin?* Elizabeth asked.

*Always came up heads in Columbia.*

Weren't blocking his way this time, but he was going to have to flip the coin before they gave an answer. The brother tossed a coin into the air and he caught it. A Columbian Silver Eagle. Looked like the same coin from back in Columbia.

He didn't try to predict the result this time and flipped the coin so it landed on the plate.

"Tails" the female said with a small amount of satisfaction.

The male marked it down on his clipboard. "It would appear that while things change, they can still stay the same."

"Maybe next time." The female told him.

"I sincerely doubt that." The brother told her.

Anna walked up to the female, her eyes on the plate. "Can I try, Please?"

*Booker, aren't you going to stop her?*

*Can't think of a reason to.*

Lutece looked at Anna and they seemed a little unsure of what to do. "It shouldn't interfere with the findings." Robert told his sister after consideration.

"I agree. It may even afford some additional data." She lowered the plate down where Anna could reach it.

Anna took the Silver Eagle from the plate and looked at it a moment. Then she flipped the coin into the air to land on the dish.

"Tails again." the female noted. Anna gave a small cheer when she heard the result. The male Lutece flipped up the top page on the clipboard and made several notes.

When the brother had flipped the page, he had gotten a quick glimpse of what was written on it. As he expected there were two columns. One with "Heads" at the top, the other "Tails". The Heads column was empty while the other a very large number of marks under it.

"So what is the result of the experiment so far?" he asked before Lutece had a chance to pull a disappearing act. Both looked at him.

The female started. "The father save the girl..."

Both looked to Anna. "and the girl saves the father." her brother finished.

The lights in the arcade started to blink and after a moment of total darkness, came back up again. As he expected, Lutece was gone.

Anna was looking around. "Where'd they go?"

"Nothing to worry about Anna. Let's keep going."

They started walking to the door.

*So Booker, we always save each other.* Elizabeth said in a thoughtful tone.

*One Constant don't think I'd ever want to change.*

End Chapter 65


	66. Chapter 66

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 66

-Booker-

They came to the exit door for the Deep Blue Sea Arcade. On the other side was the Security Camera that he had Bypassed when they had been here last.

Anna took a moment to put her goggles back over her eyes without him having to remind her.

"Good girl." He told her and she smiled back.

He went to the door then hesitated. Would the Bypass still work? "Wait here." he told his daughter.

*Is there a problem?* Elizabeth asked.

*Just making sure the Bypass Plasmid still works.*

*It should.*

*Best to be sure. What of you? Wouldn't want those Bots attacking you.*

*The Bypass might work for her since I'm your daughter. Also I'm a Little Sister. I'm certain that the security systems have been programed not to fire on them.*

*Let's see what happens with me first.*

He stepped to the door and it opened automatically. He only had to wait a moment and the camera swung in his direction. No alarm. Good.

"Come on Anna."

She kind of skipped over to where he stood. The Security Camera didn't react to her. There was another new dead body here, but he didn't think of stopping to search it.

_The Little Sister's Orphanage: in troubled times, give your little girl the life that she deserves. Boarding and education free of charge. After all, children are the future of Rapture._

Past the shops and apartments they walked. Fewer people now and more damage from fighting. Exposed pipes leaked water or steam, holes in walls and pools of water were common now. Not as many lights working as before and some of that did flickered ominously. Occasionally, a light would cast a grotesque shadow on a wall ahead.

Sometimes the shadows moved.

Anna never strayed from him. He knew she wanted to hold his hand, but he needed both of them free much of the time. When he could he did his best to comfort her and she kept up a brave face, but he knew she was scared. It wasn't so much what she saw, but what her imagination tried to convince her was in the shadows.

The real monsters were easier for her to deal with.

Finally they came to the darkened stairway where the splicers had tried to ambush him when he had been escorting Lisa. He shown the flashlight down the stairs, but didn't see anyone.

There was a noise behind them. He wheeled about with the machine gun at ready. Two, no three splicers were coming out from corridor behind them. Still a little ways away, but to close for of peace of mind.

He could hear Anna go down the first couple of steps to get some cover.

The first was a man carrying a double barreled shotgun and wearing a cat mask that only covered half his face. The part of his face the mask didn't cover looked as if it had been burned off. The next splicer was a woman in the blood spattered remains of a nightgown carrying a baseball bat covered in even more blood. Sores covered her arms and her left eye was swollen closed. The last splicer was male with a bandages covering most of his face and carrying a pistol. The one eye not covered with bandages looked too big for his head.

"Get him! He has ADAM! I know it!" the one with the shotgun screamed when he realized they had been seen. The woman shrieked with joy and hate.

He put a burst into the one with the shotgun, but didn't drop him. The splicer fired one barrel, than the other. His Shield took the hits, but had some good sized cracks in it. The splicer in the nightgown was running at him. Bandages fired several times, but only got one hit.

The splicer with the shotgun went to reload, but a second burst finished him before he could do more than break it open. Then the Thugish splicer was swinging her bat. He dodged, then struck back with the Grabber. The Shock Wave Gear didn't activate to though.

Bandages fired again and hit the woman, but he didn't really think she noticed. As she drew back to swing, he hit her again and this time the Gear worked. The splicer flew back the way she came, almost hitting Bandages.

He raised the Tommy Gun to finish both splicers off when Bandages unleashed Sonic Boom. He flew backwards and landed painfully at the bottom the stairs.

"Daddy!"

He looked up at Anna as he stood. She both her hands over her mouth. Couldn't blame her, but the splicers certainly must have heard her.

He quickly looked around and saw no one down here. Anna should be safe. "Come down here." he told her. She hesitated a split second before scrambling down the stairs. As she did, he started run up them and switched to the shotgun.

"I heard a Little Sister! Where is she!"

Bandages appeared at the top of the stairs. "I need some ADAM! Gimme the Little...!"

The splicer never got to finish what he was saying as Booker gave him a shotgun blast that knocked him back out of sight.

He switched to the Speed Demon Gear and was at the top of the stairs a moment later.

The splicer with the bat was up on her feet again and charging towards him. She screamed incoherently as she ran. Bandages was making a break for a nearby Health Dispenser. He shot the splicer running at him and she crashed face first into the floor.

Just as Bandages got to the Dispenser brought up the Grabber and lightning flashed from it to the splicer. Using the Gear he was behind the splicer before the effects of the lightning wore off and used the Grabber to cut his throat. The fight over, he reloaded as quickly walked back to the stairs. Ahead of him the female splicer groaned and started moving.

*Booker, you should use the Health Station.*

*Can wait. Don't want to leave Anna alone.*

The splicer was struggling to get to her hands and knees. As he walked past her he fired the shotgun into the back of her head.

*You can bring her back up with you.*

*Rather not have her see all this.*

*Oh for… Booker, she, I, we've seen a lot worse than this. Just use the Health Station.*

*All right, all right.*

Anna was near the bottom of the stairs and off to the side. When she saw him she raced up the stairs and latched herself on to his left hand with a small smile.

*Does Anna hang onto you like this whenever she's scared?*

*Doesn't get frighten that often.*

Anna said "yuck" softly when she saw the dead splicers, but didn't have much else of a reaction. He hated himself for that.

*Somehow, I don't think I'm that fearless.*

*Just know what you should be frightened of.*

He didn't bother hacking the Station as it would take time and could afford to spend a few extra dollars. After he got healed up, it was back down the stairs and off towards Odysseus Manor. They were walking through and area of small business and apartments. Anna asked "Are we there yet?" only once.

Many of the door had been broken into and the rooms beyond looted. A few doors were still locked, but not many. A short distance down the corridor they passed a door with a heavy lock on the door.

Or tried to.

The moment that Anna noticed the lock, she stopped to look at it.

"Anna." No one else around, but he didn't have much faith it would stay that way long.

"Aww. I haven't seen one like this before."

He took a closer look at it and realized it looked a lot like the ones in Columbia.

*I had almost thought you were joking when you said Anna was so interested in locks.*

*Wouldn't joke about something like that.* he told her as he looked away making sure the coast was clear. When he looked back his daughter had a hairpin in her hand and was starting to pick the lock.

*Don't worry. There isn't an alarm on this one.*

*Alarm?* Last they needed was bells going off.

*Some of the locks down in Fontaine's had them, this one doesn't.* *Huh, this is a little more fun now.*

He looked at the sign over the door. "Lynch Equities Exchange." No windows. Doors looked heavy.

'Guess I should keep an eye out for lock picks now.'

A couple moments later the lock opened and fell to the floor. Anna turned to him and smiled. Hard to get upset after seeing a smile like that. He bent down to pick up the lock and put it back on the door.

*Not going to see what's inside?*

*Best if we left.*

He was just about to relock the doors when he heard voices coming from behind. Three, maybe four. Running.

"Where are they?" he heard a shout. Running blind was a bad idea and he wanted to avoid another fight if he could. Anna looked at him as her smile faded.

"Guess we go in after all." He told her as he pushed open the doors. And almost slammed them shut when he saw the turret inside.

Anna made a small "Eep" and took cover to the left. The turret was just starting up and before it could fire he hit it with a bolt of lightning. "Anna, close the doors!" Had to get to the turret before the shock wore off and hack it.

He opened the door to the controls and switched to the Quick-Draw and Machine Master Gears and went to work. Halfway through, he heard the doors shut.

There! The turret worked for him now. Anna was over to the side looking a little worried. He motioned her to come over as he stood and looked around. Lots of desks, chairs and paperwork. He chose a solid looking desk and quietly told her to hide behind it.

He walked to the door and saw there was a deadbolt lock on it. Anna had already thrown it. He could hear people outside.

"Zeb, check those doors! Those two couldn't have gotten far!"

Sounded like they were looking for him and Anna. Them that attacked earlier must have had friends.

Someone tried the door. Then something slammed into it, but the deadbolt held.

"Hey! I think they're in here! Lock's gone!" a voice yelled.

He picked out a heavy desk to the right of the turret and turned it over. Should give some protection. He had only been able to buy one Proximity Grenades so far and loathed using it on these splicers.

Something slammed into the doors again and they gave a little. "Get 'em! Get 'em! Break it down!"

"What are you doing?" came a distant voice.

Something slammed into the door and it gave a little. "Guy in here killed Marshal, Jill and Oscar!"

"He did us a favor killin' Marshal and his slut!" The voice got louder as it owner got closer. "Want some ADAM? We're going to take down a Big Daddy over in Odysseus. Could use help."

The pounding on the door stopped and several voices ask "ADAM?"

"Yeah. But ya gotta come now."

"Screw this." "ADAM." "Never liked Marshal or that bitch of his." "Sorry Oscar." After that he heard the splicers head off down the corridor towards Odysseus Manor.

*That was close. Think they will be able to take a Big Daddy?*

*Don't know, but leaving now isn't a good idea. Can follow in a few minutes.*

*You should take a good look around here before we leave.* She seemed oddly insistent all of a sudden. Did she feel like she had been here already?

"Anna, it's ok to…" She was already out from behind the desk looking around intently.

"...come out." He suppressed a sigh.

He took a better look around as well. Rooms in back. Best to see what they were before Anna got back there. The first was a large office with an oversized desk covered with papers. Name plate on the desk said "Agatha Cartwell", but there was nothing personal around. No photographs of family, even the paintings on the walls were of places around Rapture and sea life. Hm. Nothing from the surface either. He noticed one of the paintings was by Cohen and was ugly as hell. No surprise there.

It looked like the owner of the office didn't want to remember the past. 'Good luck with that lady.' A quick search turned up a .38 and two boxes of ammo in the desk.

"I found something!" Anna said from the doorway. She had taken her goggles off and in her hands was an Audio Diary.

"Thank you Anna."

_Matthew DeSantis: Off Her Nut_

_December 28, 1958_

_Cartwell was been on the warpath ever since Ryan sunk Fontaine's. First she just had us make extra copies of everything and send it off to Air- Tite. Couple weeks ago we find a bunch of workmen in here putting in a damn bank vault! Cartwell said it was the only way to "protect our files". Last week I saw her stocking food, weapons and ammunition in there. She's gone off her rocker. Nothin's going to happen. Rapture is set for better things now that Fontaine's gone. _

*People in Rapture sure do like to hide things.* Elizabeth told him with a slightly disgusted tone.

*Lots of reason to hide things, not all bad.* "Now, where would they hide this vault?" He glanced about the room, then went to leave. "See what else you can find Anna, but be careful."

"Yes Daddy!" she said as she scampered off.

*You don't think the vault is in here?*

*No. Cartwell was worried about safety, but didn't see her employees as the threat.*

*I would like to be a little more help, but right now I'm looking through a desk."

*Think I can find it by myself.*

The next room over was a large room dominated by a table. At the head of the table was a podium with a screen on the wall behind it. Off in a corner was a film projector on a small cart and some other equipment. Safe wasn't here. Walls were years old.

*Ouch" Anna and Elizabeth said.

He was at the door's threshold in an instant. Anna was standing in front of a desk looking at her finger with unhappy expression. "Anna?"

*I stuck my finger.*

She showed him her hand. "Not bleeding. I'll be more careful." she quickly promised to keep him from warning her again.

"Make sure you do." *What did she stick her finger on?*

*A knife, like they use in the Army. Sharp and not in a sheath. I'm surprised that the fool that used that desk didn't cut their own finger off.*

She sounded a little odd. *Something wrong?* he asked as he walked to the last room.

*Something right I suppose. When Anna, um.. used the syringe to draw her blood, she didn't react to the pain. I was a little worried.*

*And now?*

*I learned how to steel myself against pain because of what Comstock did to me. I still do it when I know something will hurt. Anna was doing the same thing.*

*But cutting your finger surprised you.*

*Yes, Anna, I, acted normal.* *I suppose that doesn't sound very good.*

*After all you've been through, acting normal sounds like a good thing.*

The door to the last room opened and it turned out to be a filled with boxes on shelves, a few filing cabinets and a couple of older looking desks. He glanced inside one of the boxes and it contained paperwork. Started look at the walls. There. One part of the wall on the right was a different shade than the rest.

He went up to the wall and looked for a way to open it. Nothing. He stepped back a moment and Anna followed him into the room.

"Done looking already?"

"Nothing fun." She told him with a slightly bored tone as she walked over to one of the desks.

Has to be something nearby or at least in the room. He searched over several shelves and a cabinet but didn't find anything.

*Booker, over here.* Elizabeth called.

He looked over at Anna who was looking under one of the desks.

"Did you find…?" Before he could finish she jabbed her finger at something. There was a click and a section of wall moved aside to reveal a heavy metal door.

"Anna, what did I say?"

She looked at him with big eyes, then at the floor. "Just wanted to see what it did." she said innocently.

"You know well enough to ask before doing something like that."

"Yes sir."

He sighed. He was going to go grey before he hit 30 at this rate. "Let's see about getting into this safe."

Anna/Elizabeth

Her father walked over to the vault door which had a numbered lock. He looked at it a few moments as if considering trying to hack it. She was watching him closely.

*Might I suggest you use an Auto Hack tool.* She really didn't want to see him electrocuted again.

Wordlessly he got it out.

*I can't believe I'm so… impulsive at times.*

He chuckled slightly as he used the Auto Hack Tool and the door cracked open.

*Seems to recall a young lady I met who went to go off dancing after falling into a lake.*

*That was…*

*Trying to stow away on a cargo craft, skipping rocks, playing a Flawless Flintlock game while…*

*Ok, Booker. I get your point.* She tried to sound mad at him, but was sure she failed.

The vault door was open now. It was jam packed full of boxes or paperwork and records. But on the far end were boxes of ammo, two Proximity Grenades, a shotgun, half a dozen batteries and an Audio Diary. Most of the ammo was standard buckshot, but there were some Exploding Buck. The Tommy Gun ammo was all regular. Can't have everything.

_Agatha Cartwell: Running_

_January 26, 1959 _

_I know now. I've been running. Running for years. Since the Blitz took Momma, Poppa and little Georgie. I ran all the way to this place so I wouldn't remember. Even after I got here I ran by working all the time. No real friends, no family. When I saw the war coming I pretended that protecting all the records was the most important thing I could do. Like that would make the war go away and I wouldn't have to remember. I'm going to die down here, but for the first time in so long, I won't be running. _

_Thank God, I won't be running. _

"She sounded sad. What's going to happen to her?"

Her father looked at her with a slightly sad expression. "Don't know. Time to go."

She put her goggles back over her eyes and followed her father to the door. Wearing these goggles was bit strange. Things were dark, but when she looked at a light they actually got darker rather than lighter. It was if the goggles reacted to the amount of light they were exposed to.

He cracked open the door and looked around before opening the door fully. "It's clear." he told her. Once outside, he put the lock back on the door.

After leaving the office they continued down the corridor, but more carefully than before. But even at the slower pace they quickly arrived at a Securis door. Beyond the door was the Tunnel that led to Odysseus Manor.

As they walked down the tunnel they came across a dead body. Even by Rapture standards the way the man had died was brutal. On the floor near the body written in blood was the phrase "Gene Traitor". Her father picked her up and carried her past so she didn't get a good look.

*Was that a splicer?* she asked. She could smell ADAM, but it didn't seem to be coming from the corpse.

*You really want me to check?*

*Yes. This reminds me of some of the splicer's rants down in Fontaine's.*

He walked a little before stopping. "Anna, stay here. I'll be right back."

She nodded. He walked back to the corpse and looked it over for a few seconds. Then turned it over with his foot. *No ADAM scars I can see.*

*I don't think some of the splicers are hunting non splicers just because they are easy targets.*

*Killing 'em just because they're unspliced is what your saying.* he said as he walked back to her. He seemed more troubled by this than she would have thought.

*It's probably only a small minority of splicers that are going out and killing "gene traitors".*

*These splicers will actively hunt down places like the enclaves.*

She hadn't considered that angle. *Mary will be So happy to hear about this.*

*Certain she will.*

_Attention: A new curfew will be enacted on Thursday. Citizens found in violation will be relocated to Apollo Square._

The Securis door opened and they were finally in Odysseus Manor. Things had taken a turn for the worst since the last time they had been here. Someone had firebombed the Bistro and three charred bodies lay in front of it. One of them had been heavily spliced and that was what she had smelled earlier. Her father was moving even more carefully now. He stayed close to the walls and what cover to be had with a Gear muffling his footsteps. To keep her from making noise by stepping on the broken glass he would pick her up.

As they got closer to the atrium they started to hear the murmur of voices. A large number of splicers where there if her nose was working correctly. Her father motioned her to stay put and her scouted ahead. He got to the archway and quickly looked around the corner, then made his way back to her.

*Splicers are setting up the ambush in the atrium.*

*How many?*

*Only saw five, but heard others. All facing the way to the Tram Tunnel.*

*We couldn't sneak past if we wanted to.*

*No. Going to have to wait until the Daddy gets here.*

*When they attack him, you're going to attack them?*

*Yeah, taking them on alone would have been hard even when I had Plasmids.*

Anna was looking at him with her head tipped slightly. *You better tell Anna something Booker. I think she's getting a little bored.*

*Not the most uncommon thing in the world.*

"We're going to have to wait a little Anna. Say, let's go see what's in that salon." he told her softly.

The Loreil Salon was in better shape than she expected. Broken glass, a chair with a hair drying mounted on the back tipped over, things thrown about. She went over to one of the chairs and was just about to trying turning it on when her father spoke.

"All the mirrors are broken." He seemed to be thinking out loud more than talking to her.

They looked through the back room and behind the counter with the cash register but didn't find anything overly interesting. Or interesting to her father. She found a nice looking hair clip for her ponytail and two new hair pins.

Her father started to tell her it was time to go when they heard the roar of a Big Daddy and gunfire. "Stay here!" he told her and took off running for the atrium. As blood was spilled the scent of the ADAM got stronger. But there was something else, some of the ADAM was different, clean or raw.

It had to be another Little Sister.

The battle raged for just over three minutes. She heard splicers scream as they died, the Big Daddy's drill and half a dozen explosions, at least two were Proximity Grenades.

At the end there was just a shotgun and a pistol. The pistol was her father's autopistol. It fired three times and then there was silence. It was almost two minutes before she heard his voice. "Anna, it's safe. Come on out."

She looked out of the solon a bit cautiously and saw her father standing by the archway. It didn't look as if it had been an easy fight for him. She immediately ran up to him.

"Are you ok, daddy?"

"I'm fine." He told her as they walked into the atrium. Anna was looking at her father so she couldn't see much of the atrium, but she could see several dead bodies and signs of damage from fighting.

*Are you really all right Booker? You don't look very good.*

*Hard fight.* He told her in a matter of fact tone. She knew he wasn't going to say much more. 'Men!'

*What about the Little Sister and the Big Daddy.*

*See for yourself.* "See Anna?" He pointed towards the Securis door. Near it was a Little Sister with dark skin, short black curly hair and wearing a green and white dress. Beside her on bended knee was a rather beat up looking Bouncer. The girl was using her syringe to inject the Big Daddy, healing him.

She and her father were not walking towards the door. Rather they were heading past the ruined shoe store towards the El Ammo Bandito. Her father checked the selection of ammo he could buy and made a disappointed "Huph" sound. Next he bent down to hack the machine. As he did so Anna looked around a little. The fighting had been as fierce as she had thought. Over by the Securis door the Bouncer got up and followed his charge as she made a beeline to the nearest corpse. Anna looked away and into the shoe store. There was something in back that caught her eye. She couldn't figure out what it was. It was too dark. She looked back at her father who was still busy with hacking the vending machine. She took one step towards the store.

"You can look around when I'm done here."

Anna's shoulders slumped a little and she stepped back. She should know better by now.

A moment later her father stood up and started to make some purchases from the machine. When he was done he came over to her.

"So what are you interested in?"

She turned around and pointed to the safe. "Something in there."

Her father looked around. There wasn't anyone else around other than the other Little Sister and her guardian.

"Ok, need to make it quick."

Before he was done talking she started for the shoe store. Half way there she stopped.

"Can I take my goggles off?"

"Should be safe."

Now that the goggles were off it was easier to see. Could that be a safe? She entered the store, careful to avoid the broken glass. Her father was following right behind her. As she got closer it wasn't a safe at all. Just a shoe display. She made a disappointed "Humph. Not fun."

"Might as well take a look around while we're here." She wasn't sure if he really wanted to look around or was do something to keep her happy.

Her father looked in the cash register, but found only a few dollars. They went in back and found the stock room and found boxes and footwear all over. Someone had knocked ever box off the shelves and onto the floor. There was a small office with a large safe, but someone had already emptied it of its contents. There was a Locksmith's bag with three lock picks in it on the floor next to it. The desk in the room had three shotgun shells, some band aids and a Pep Bar.

"Can I have that?" she asked the moment she saw it.

Her father gave her the bar. "That's the only one you allowed for the day."

She ate it slowly to make it last longer. She was still chewing on the remains as they left the store and started for the Securis door. Odd that Pep Bars tasted better to her now. She really hadn't really liked them much before. Her father reminded her to put her goggles back on.

As they walked they passed the Big Daddy and his Little Sister. Her father had made sure that they path they took kept them a safe distance from the pair but as they got a little closer, she started to take a closer look at the other Little Sister.

"Vanessa!" She yelled and she ran towards the other girl.

"Da…Get back here!" her father shouted. What a time for her to surprise her father!

Vanessa looked up when she heard her name, but seemed confused.

Then the Bouncer roared and slammed his armored foot into the floor as the drill started to spin up. She stopped in her tracks.

Then her father was between her and the Bouncer. *Booker! Tell Anna to take off her goggles!*

"Anna, take off your goggles!"

She quickly lifted them up so they were on her forehead. The Bouncer looked at her then shifted a little to look at her father. Then the drill spun down and the yellow lights in the Bouncer's helmet flickered and turned green.

"Anna!" the other Little Sister called and run up to her. She slowed down a little when she realized her father was there. He cautiously stepped aside, but she still seemed nervous about his being there.

"It's ok. That's my daddy!" Anna told her proudly. Vanessa looked at her father with a look that was part awe and part question. Then they started talking. "How are you?" "Nice hat." "Where's Becky?" "Do flapjacks taste good?" was just what she was able to catch as the two talked so fast.

As she and Vanessa talked she realized that for all the horror that was being a Little Sister, there as something more with it. A bond. The Little Sisters had a bond. It was something she never could have imagined.

They must have talked for nearly five minutes before her father interrupted. "Anna, we need to go." There was a rumble of agreement from the Bouncer.

"Ok daddy", "Yes! Mr. Bubbles!"

As she walked towards the Securis door she waved at Vanessa, but the Little Sister was already on her knees next to a corpse sticking a needle in it. Anna yelled "By Vanessa! By Mr. Bubbles!" The Bouncer's helmet turned yellow and he was looking around ready to defend the Little Sister against all threats.

*Ever hear of a Big Daddy doing something like that?* her father asked.

*I think Mister DeWitt, that you have become an honorary Big Daddy.*

"Just what I always wanted."

End Chapter 66


	67. Chapter 67

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 67

Anna/Elizabeth

They left Odysseus Manor and entered the Tram Tunnel. There was nothing they could do for Vanessa right now, but she would be safe. She hoped. It was more difficult than she expected to leave the Little Sister behind.

In the Tram Tunnel there were signs that heavy fighting had taken place since they had been there last but it seemed quiet now. There was a fairly long straight section and her father carried her on his back nearly the entire distance. It was actually rather fun to be carried on her father's back. And since he used the Speed Demon Gear they moved fast enough it was almost like a breeze hitting her face.

She would be SO happy to see the sun again and fell a real breeze.

The splicers they saw didn't take much interest in them and none tried to attack. At the most they probably wondered what Plasmid her father was using.

As they neared a bend in the tunnel her father stopped and put her down. Running down a straight tunnel where they could see ahead was one thing, running around corners, that was another.

The signs of fighting where heavy here as well. There were piles of sandbags, at least half a dozen dead bodies, a destroyed turret, a bicycle with a missing a tire and some weapons. That no one had picked up the weapons which seemed a little odd. She looked at a ruined tram car, but didn't get to close to it. Inside were three storage crates, several boxes of Electric Buck and a crossbow.

But there something that bothered her about the tram's doorway. There were several heavy wires across it. Anna looked at them, but didn't reach out to touch them. Her father came up behind her to see what she was looking at.

"What did you find?"

"Funny wires."

"Stay here." he told her as he walked to the other side of the car. After a moment he called "Don't touch them. Stand back." There was concern in his voice.

*What's the matter?* she asked as she took several steps back.

*Not sure, but going to find out.* He walked back around the tram with a piece of pipe in hand. He picked a position about six feet away from the tram and gently tossed the pipe into the wires. When it hit there was a flash as electricity arced over the pipe.

*Electrified wires?*

*Something like that. Can't see it from this side, but the wires were attached to crossbow bolts.*

*Can I see one?*

Her father walked up to the tram car and looked inside. "Looks safe now." *Seems they burn up when they go off. Maybe next time.*

*I wonder why these supplies were left here. And all these weapons were just left behind.*

*Splicers must not be coming up here for some reason.* her father told her as he climbed inside the tram car to search it.

*Somehow I don't think we're going to like what we find down the tunnel.*

*Only one way to find out.*

Her father searched through the crates finding canned food, two bottles of soda, some brass, one battery, twelve crossbow bolts and an Audio Diary. When he was done he jumped down and they played the diary as they walked. It had been recorded in French.

_Louis Perreault: Good Times, Bad Times_

_January 6, 1959_

_What is the saying? What goes up, must come down? Such is true for Rapture. This city has had it good and now it is time for the bad. It is the way of things. I shall survive during these times as I did before during the war. And most importantly I will be prepared for when it is all over. There shall be no Claude this time._

Anna had been listening to the Diary and seemed to understand it, at least some of it. *Booker, has Anna studied French?*

*No, didn't seem interested.*

*I think she may remember some of it now.*

*Huh. Don't think it's anything to worry about.*

As they go closer to the bend she noticed that the tram tracks were covered with water. Sitting in the water on the right side were three large crates and some luggage. It almost looked like a small island. And sitting on the island was a Gear container tipped over on its side.

As they got closer to the small lake, they could see bolts of electricity arcing over it. Only the tracks were covered by the water though. The raised center section and along the walls was dry so it was easy enough to continue. But they couldn't afford to pass on a chance to get that Gear.

Her father raised up the Air Grabber, but thought better of it before she could say anything. If he tried to use the Air Grabber here, he was likely to get electrocuted again. He looked up at the metal supports overhead and then at the "island" but didn't like what he saw. There wasn't enough room for him to land safely. How to get it? Then she remembered something Comstock did down in Fontaine's.

*Booker, you should be able to freeze the water with the Chemical Thrower.*

Without responding he got out the Chemical Thrower and let loose a stream of liquid nitrogen onto the water. He didn't freeze the entire lake, but a section few feet across. He tested the ice to make sure it could support his weight.

It did.

"Worked better that I expected. You stay here Anna."

*That was something I wouldn't have thought of.* he told her.

He then made an ice bridge out to the island and the Gear. While he was out on the ice she took a close look at the ice by the "shore". It was already melting and melting quickly. Old Man Winter was much better at freezing water than the Chemical Thrower was.

"Daddy! It's melting!"

Her father was already walking back and picked up the pace, but he could only move so fast on the ice. As he got near the edge of the lake the end of the bridge melted away and he had to jump to safety. His Shield would have been able to withstand the electric shock for a short time, but she doubted it would have been pleasant.

*Sorry, I thought it would last longer.*

*Got the Gear without getting electrocuted. That's what's important.*

As he examined the Gear she looked back at the lake and noticed a flat piece of metal a little bigger than her hand. She picked it up and threw it. The metal skipped across the water twice before it hit something. She frowned slightly. If there had been more room she knew it was have skipped at least four times.

"Sorry there's not enough room Anna. Going to have to wait until we get out of here before you can try and beat your record."

"I know." she said a little sadly.

Huh, she enjoyed skipping stones. *So, what IS my record for skipping stones?*

"Let's go." He picked her up and carried her to the raised center portion of the tunnel. *Record's nine times. You're aiming for twelve.* he told her as he put her down.

*Nine? I've been practicing.*

*Where did you learn to skip stones? Certainly didn't learn in the Tower.* her father asked as he climbed up beside her.

They started walking as she took a moment to remember. *Back when I still made my own tears I visited a lake where some children were skipping stones. It seemed like fun so the next time I opened a tear to someplace with water, I think it was a sea, I copied what I had seen them do.*

*You've spent a lot of time practicing.*

*And I can beat you?*

*Humph. Most I've been able is three.*

*Not much of a contest then. So, what was the new Gear?*

*Called Tip Top Condition. Heals using EVE.*

*That's not going… You still have EVE?*

*Yeah. Might be because of the Infusions.*

Anna got tired of looking at the water cover the tram tracks and started looking at the buildings that surrounded them. "Are we there yet?"

"Not yet, but getting closer."

She thought a moment. *It's possible that EVE is just a name for something already present in the human body. We can get EVE from the food we eat and even cigarettes. Most anything that acts as a stimulant I suppose.*

_What that new Plasmid, but you're short on cash? Have some gold, silver or stocks you don't want anymore? Then visit a Kings Pawn today! We'll give you top dollar!_

They had reached another bend. Booker stopped suddenly, his eyes fixed on something ahead.

"Damn."

She was looking at her father and it took her a moment to shift her gaze to further down the tunnel.

Two tram cars lay across the tracks to form a blockade. Between the tram cars were tables, chairs, pieced of rubble and even a some kind of statue. On top of the car on the right was a turret behind some sandbags.

*Now we know why splicers don't come up here.*

She looked around and raised her goggles to get a better look. "Daddy, what is all that?"

"Somebody doesn't anyone get past." He studied the blockade a moment. "Should be able to get over it with the Grabber. Just have to hack the turret when we get closer. And put your goggles back down"

They started walking forward her father concentrating on the blockade. Searching for signs of someone there. After a minute she looked at the water. There were five bodies in it. Some had been shot, but one had a crossbow bolt in his head. She pulled on her father's sleeve. "Daddy."

He stopped and went to look at her then saw the bodies. He looked to his left quickly. "Anna back up, not going this way."

*What…?* she started to ask when a rifle shot rang out and her father grunted in pain.

He grabbed her and held her up in his arms. As he did so a crossbow bolt flew past them. A moment later she heard another hit her father. Then he was running. Another rifle shot rang out but missed. Her father didn't slow down until they were back around the bend and well out of site of the blockade.

When they were safe, he gently put her back down ground. "You ok Anna?" He was trying to hide something from her.

"Yep!" she gave him a big smile.

*And how are you? You got hit by a crossbow.*

*Should be healed up in a minute or so.*

*The new Gear?*

*Yeah. Heals a bit slower than I would like, but it's steady and not using much EVE.*

"What are we going to do now?" Anna asked him.

*That's a good question.*

"Going to have to figure out a way around that barricade."

*Not going to fight your way through?*

*Think it would be lot easier to go around.* He was starting to look around or rather up.

*So we go around.* She followed his gaze. Just overhead was a pedestrian glass tunnel between the two buildings on either side of the tunnel. Then he walked over to the wall of the tunnel and looked. He got out the autopistol and looked through the scope.

*Think there's a way around.* he told her as he walked back.

"Anna, this is what we have to do. We need to go back to the last tram station we passed, then up inside the building to that tunnel above us." Her eyes followed the tunnel to the other building and down. "There's a tunnel from that building that meets up with the tram tunnel on the other side of the blockade. Then we'll be almost there."

Anna smiled at the news and follower her father as they walked back to the tram station. She wasn't so sure about this plan though.

*I don't remember any tram stations in that section of track.*

*Isn't one. Tunnel meets up under the tram tracks.*

*Under… the tracks. You mean the sewers.*

*Got a better idea?*

*No.* she told him in a disappointed tone. Great, another part of Rapture she didn't want to see.

_A Rapture reminder: Council members have no regulatory oversight of city commerce. Your business is your business. _

The tram station was for Typhon Towers. It was large and had been well appointed before the war. Now it was dark, broken pipes leaked water and destroyed furniture was scattered about. A splicer ran across a passage to the right screaming about the bugs crawling around behind in his eyes and how he needed a spoon.

They found a flight of stairs and slowly walked up. Her father wasn't going to trust an elevator and she didn't blame him. Took some time to climb up the seven stories to where the tunnel was. Half way up they stopped and rested a few minutes. She wondered a little if he stopped for himself as much as her. She didn't think he had totally recovered from nearly dying yet.

When they got to the floor they needed the tunnel wasn't far. As they walked to it a splicer wielding a machete came charging out of a dry cleaners yelling that he wanted what he was owed. A short burst ended him.

As they moved on she realized she was humming along with a song playing over the loudspeakers. It took a moment to realize it was one of Albert Fink's songs "You're The Top". Well, they really hadn't been Albert's songs had they? She decided that hearing the original version was much better.

As they moved on they walked past a place called the "The Red Rose", a tailor and a delicatessen.

She noticed a sign saying Cronos Estates and an arrow pointing the way they were heading.

*I've heard of Cronos Estates. Many of Rapture's Nuevo Rich lived there.*

*Thought they were up in Olympus Heights.*

*Those tended to be the "old money" and the most important people like Fontaine and Suchong. Cronos Estates attracted the up and coming, and the social climbers and those not quite rich or powerful enough to get into Olympus Heights.*

*Seem to know a bit about it.*

*Humph. When I was singing for Cohen I was invited up here for "cocktails" more than once. Wretched people.*

Her father almost, but didn't quite flinch. *Booker, I'm a grown woman. Well, I was. Anyway I knew what kind of place I was coming to when I came here after Comstock.*

*I know, just…*

*Booker.* she warned.

*Ok, forgotten.*

Finally they got to the tunnel entrance. It reminded her of a waiting room with chairs couches and a few planters. There had been some fighting here recently. Her father took a moment to examine one of the corpses, a male splicer in an expensive looks white suite.

"Twelve hours ago, maybe a little longer." Near him was an Audio Diary. Like the last one it was in French.

_Louis Perreault: Discretion _

_March 18, 1957_

_This American, Fontaine. He is so obvious one would think that he was trying to provoke Ryan. Provoking the Russian is not a wise move and I would think the American would know that. Perhaps Fontaine believes he can beat the Russian. Typical American arrogance I suppose, but I shall not complain. With Ryan and Fontaine busy with each other, that has made it much easier to acquire some small items of special value from the surface. My... best customers greatly appreciate my efforts on their behalf. By being discrete the American and the Russian will never know. _

They found the entrance to the tunnel a little further down. As they got closer to it the more bodies they found. Most of them had been splicers but they also found several that were unspliced. A couple of them looked to have been shot in the back.

Anna made a face all the dead bodies, but didn't say anything. She got the impression that they were about as old as the ones they had found a short time ago. The walked to the Securis Door for the tunnel, but her father stopped before he opened it.

"Why don't you wait over there Anna." He told her and pointed to the side. When she was out of the line of fire he opened the door, his machine gun ready. He lowered it after a moment. "Nothing." He said more to himself than her. "Anna, let's go."

They made their way down the tunnel. Looking out of the tunnel they could see the tram tunnel below them. Every ten or fifteen feet along the tunnel there was a dead body. Most often a splicer, but occasionally not. At the other end of the tunnel were pieces of furniture and sandbags that formed a barricade. Fortunately, it was unmanned.

The Securis door for Cronos Estates was about fifteen feet the other side of the barricade. Her father looked over it and frowned. Then he bent down and lifter her up to put her atop the barricade before climbing over himself. Just the other side of the barricade were three more dead bodies. None were splicers.

Her father put her down as far from the dead as he could manage.

*I suspect this may have been an enclave for those who weren't spliced.*

*Don't think it's one now.* her father said grimly as the Securis door opened. Beyond the door was a small plaza. Sinclair's Spirits, Esmeralda's Beauty, Bella Mia's High Fashion, Vincenzo's Ristorante and several other stores that had been abandoned some time ago.

"Someone should clean this all up." she told her father. He quietly "shushed" her.

But Anna was right. The area was a mess. Vandalized, destroyed for destructions sake. Every window had been smashed and the businesses merchandise thrown all over or destroyed. It looked like there had been a fire in Sinclair's, but it had burned out already. She looked up. Eight stories overhead was a skylight and on all sides large balconies that looked down on them.

One thing that was a surprise was that there was only one body here. Her father made sure to keep her from getting a good look at it. When asked, he told her that someone had cut the upper part of the man's face off. Now they knew where the "masks" some of the splicers used to cover their ADAM scars came from. From the amount of blood she had glimpsed, she wasn't confident the man had been dead when it happened either.

After picking their through the plaza they entered a wide two story tall passageway covered with Art Deco sculptures and artwork. There was surprisingly little damage here other than a few small leaks and someone using the head of one of the statues for target practice. Of course there wasn't anything of importance here to destroy either. Just planters with dead plants, chairs and a few couches. A sign with an arrow pointing onward listed "Elevators" and "Bathysphere Bay".

The passage opened into an atrium that ran seven floors to the lobby below and up another two stories. All around the atrium on each floor was a walkway that ran all the way around. Given the spacing of the doors the apartments must be huge. Light was provided by fixtures built into the support pillars. Long red and green pro Rapture propaganda banners hung from the ceiling though two had been damaged by fire and another torn down. Other than that there was surprisingly little damage here. Maybe the splicers had a target in mind?

On the right was a bank of elevators that were probably the only way up into the most expensive suites that occupied the floors above. Another example of idiotic designing. She had heard rumors about the "parties" that where often held on the top floors and all the forms of debauchery that occurred.

There was a stairway on the other side of the atrium, but it only went down a single floor. The fool who had designed this place had placed the stairs for one floor on one side of the atrium, but on the next floor the stairs would be on the opposite side. She really didn't want to think of all the walking and time that would be needed to get down to the first floor.

Her father didn't like it either. "Think we should see if we can use those elevators."

When they arrived at the elevators they found that three dead bodies lying in front of the doors to one of them. One had been burned to death while the other two had been cut up. Probably the handywork of a Spider Splicer. The button to summon an elevator was coated with dried blood and her father used the barrel of his shotgun to press it.

It took a minute for the car to arrive and the doors to open. They hadn't heard any unusual noises and the car looked to be undamaged. The ride down didn't take long and the elevator stopped on the second floor rather than the lobby. Her father hadn't wanted to enter the lobby without getting a good look first. At least walking down a single flight of stairs wouldn't be too bad.

After leaving the elevator her father spent several minutes examining the lobby below them. She walked up beside him and tried to look over the handrail of the banister, but was too short. She looked through the gaps between the thick spindles that supported the handrail.

The lobby had been ornate even by Rapture standards, several hundred feet across and rather gaudy. Where in most places a fountain might have a stylized human figure that lacked featured or a geometric shape at its center, here the figure was a twenty foot female with exaggerated anatomy. Tasteful nudity this statue certainly was not. It stood in a forty foot wide circular pool of water covered with figures of mythological sea creatures.

Near the statue was what looked to be a small café and with a large number of tables and chairs. Probably a popular meeting place at one time. To the left or it Circus of Values machine lay smashed and looted on the floor. It hadn't just been broken into, it looked crushed. Given the damage it was likely someone had thrown it from an upper floor.

Fierce fighting had taken place here and fourteen dead bodies lay around, three of them in the water around the statue. There were four large corridors and two smaller one they could see. It was likely that there where others they could not see from this vantage point. There was something in front of a corridor to the right, but couldn't see it well enough. She shifted and craned her neck but still couldn't make it out.

Her father noticed and picked her up and sat her on the railing so she could see better. "Thank you." she told him.

Now what was it she had seen? A chair? Not a chair, the remains of a turret sitting behind a row of sandbags. A little further over was another destroyed turret. Directly in front of the second destroyed turret were another two dead bodies with another on the floor just behind it. The turrets had been set up to defend a corridor, but from this vantage point they couldn't see much beyond the destroyed turrets.

"Looks quiet." her father said, but he didn't sound as if he truly believed it. He picked her up and sat her back on the floor. A wide staircase with ornate banisters took them down to the lobby and they paused at the foot of the stairs to looked around once more.

The corridor with the destroyed turrets wasn't that long and led to a heavy door with a Security Camera. The sign over the door had been nearly destroyed and all that remained was what looked to be a champagne glass, so it had likely been a nightclub. Between the remains of the turrets and the nightclub's doors were five more dead bodies.

She looked to her father a moment and saw he had his pistol up and was looking down the scope at the nightclub. When he lowered the pistol there was a slight frown on his face.

"We going to go down there daddy?"

"Best to stay away from there. Think there's someone watching. Let's go."

They started walking towards the statue at the center of the lobby. *What did you see?* she asked.

*Firing slits, either side of the door.*

*So there are people here.*

*Yeah, the splicers didn't get all of 'em.*

Looking around now they could see six large corridors and three smaller ones. Three of the corridors looked to be residential apartments, another led to some kind of park, the one of those right to the night club and the last to a large bathysphere bay. There were several alcoves with different vending machines along with a two of Little Sister Vents.

Her father didn't seem to be paying much attention to the large corridors, but concentrated on the smaller ones. The tunnel they wanted was still several levels lower than the lobby and possibly used for maintenance.

"Guess we can try…" he started to say.

"Gene traitor!"

In the residential corridor to the far left was a Spider Splicer pointing at them with one of hers hooks.

Range wasn't good for the machine gun and her father drew his pistol. "Get to cover!" he ordered.

Three shot rang out and she heard the yells and screams of other splicers. There must be at least a half dozen of them. Likely more. She hid behind a heavy table and spent a moment double checking the location of the closest Little Sister Vent. She knew her father had told her to get to a Vent if there was trouble, but she didn't like it. If someone saw her they would know she was a Little Sister.

And it would feel like she was abandoning her father. That was something she never, ever wanted to do.

Looking to her father he was moving off to the left to draw the splicers away from her location. She couldn't see most of the attacking splicers, but two Thugish were charging at him and others were firing at him, one with Electro Bolt.

Her father backed up to gain time as he switched from his autopistol to the Chemical Thrower. The splicers were only six feet away when fire spewed from the weapon. The two Splicers thrashed around of a few moments before collapsing.

Her father's Shield had taken at least eight hits from gunfire and two Electro Bolts. Then he was hit by Incinerate! He was on fire! He growled in pain and started moving side to side as he switched to the machine gun and returned fire. The splicers where still screaming things like "Gene Traitor" and "Kill the Neanderthal!"

It was taking all of her will to keep still. She wanted so much to open a Tear to get a Med Kit!

He dodged another bolt of electricity and in response he shot a bolt from the Air Grabber followed by a Proximity Grenade. Before the grenade had a chance to explode he fired a burst that killed a Leadhead that was trying to pistol whip him.

The grenade exploded and there were two screams. She leaned out from behind the table to get a better look of what was going on. As she did, a bullet zipped past her face only missing it by inches. She got back behind the table very quickly. Several more rounds hit the table a moment later. She could heal from any wound, but being shot would hurt. Then the thought came to her of what would happen if she was hit in the head. It wouldn't kill her, but what would something like that do to her mind?

She would rather not find out. Fortunately, it seemed Anna had learned her lesson and stayed under cover.

There was another explosion and a shotgun firing twice. Then all was quiet.

"Safe to come out now." came her father's voice. She immediately scampered out from behind the table and towards where he stood. She slowed a little when she saw him though. He looked to have been hurt.

"Daddy?" she asked clearly worried.

"I'm fine, you ok?" he asked her, but didn't turn to look directly at her. He was hiding the left side of his face.

*Booker what is...*

*Be ok in a minute. Already used a Kit, just need a moment for the Gear to finish.*

He could be so mule headed at times. But he was at least partially right, allowing Anna to see him with a bad wound was something she didn't need.

"Come on, let's go see what's in the vending machines."

"Can I have a Cheeky?" So, Anna had favorite brand of Pep Bar.

"No, you already had one today."

"Aww."

As they walked over to an alcove that housed she looked at where the battle had occurred. There were nine dead splicers. Her father bought the supplies he needed and took the time to hack the El Ammo Bandito to get the ammunition he needed. He didn't want to stay around here longer than he had too and she had no problem with that. As they started to walk away the Circus of Values spouted out _"Come back when you get some money, buddy!"_

Her father looked back at the machine, giving it a hard glare. She tried not to laugh.

They headed towards the first of the small passageways. Half way there, static came over the short wave radio. After a moment the static faded and was replaced by a voice.

+_'ello, 'ello, Can you hear me?_+

Her father ignored the voice, but it persisted. +_'ello? I am trying to contact the monsieur with the child_.+ The voice had a French accent and she was quite sure who the person that owned the voice was.

*Booker, I think he's talking to you.*

Her father muttered something under his breath, but got out the shortwave.

"Yeah, I can hear you."

+_Ah, Bonjour! So kind of you to remove that rubbish. It was most impressive. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Louis Perreault and I believe that may be of help to one another._+

End Chapter 67


	68. Chapter 68

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 68

-Booker-

+_Ah, Bonjour! So kind of you to remove the rubbish! It was most impressive. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Louis Perreault and I believe that may be able to be of help to one another._+

Now what did this guy want?

"What makes you think that we can help each other?"

+_A good businessman knows when a customer is looking for something, no? I think we should speak. Come to the "Les Nuits de Paris" if you please, so we may converse more in comfortable surroundings._+

"Sorry, don't see it."

+_Mon Dieu, I had forgotten the splicers had ruined my beautiful sign. (Sigh) You will find me down the corridor with the defunct turrets._+

*So what are we going to do?* Elizabeth asked.

*Don't think it's a trap. Couldn't hurt to talk to the man.* "Come on, Anna." he told his daughter as he started to walk to the lounge.

*You knew where the man's was.* she accused him.

*Making that kind of mistake might help him to underestimate us a little.*

*You've gotten playing dumb down pat.*

*Thanks a lot.*

*I didn't mean it like that. Most people I met acted like they are more intelligent than they really were. You're willing to be seen as less intelligent than you really are if it gives you an advantage.*

*Need every advantage we can get down here.*

As they walked down the passageway to the Les Nuits de Paris he thought about the name. Most of Rapture was named for myths, religion or economic ideas. This place was named for a city. He kept a close watch on the firing slits, but saw nothing and the Security Camera didn't react to either of them. There was also a slot in the door about eye height, but it was closed at the moment. Anna was looking around not seeing much of interest to her.

When they got to the door they waited a moment. He had expected someone to open the door when they arrived. Guess not. He knocked on the door, rather hard.

After a moment a slot in door opened and a pair of eyes looked around suspiciously. "You alone?" demanded a deep voice from the other side of the door.

"Just the two of us."

The man on the other side of the door shifted a little so he could see further down and Anna waved at him. The man on the other side of the door was tall, 'bout 6'3", probably a thug this Perreault was using as security for the nightclub.

The thug grunted and the slot slammed closed. After a few seconds they heard a lock turn and the door opened. There were three large men standing inside the next room all were heavily armed with either a shotgun or a machine gun and carried a pistol for backup. All three looked him over, but ignored Anna. Two of the men were dressed in the white shirts and black vests and pants. The last was dressing in work clothes and seemed a little less concerned about him.

"Give me all your guns and take off that mask." the one who had opened the door demanded.

He just looked at the man. This thug was the kind that was used to intimidating people with his size and attitude, but when it came down it that was all the man had. Had put more than a few like him into the hospital or morgue back in New York.

"Winton, the man shall keep his weapons." Perreault's voice came from behind the thugs. "And his mask."

The thugs didn't move. "Gentlemen, if you would move aside?" Perreault told them.

The thugs reluctantly parted. Behind the muscle was a man of about average height and looked to be in his early 60's. His hair was grey and getting a little thin on top, but it was very neatly combed and his dark blue suit wore him like a glove. The perfect image of successful businessman.

"I must apologize Monsieur. But in these times one must be careful, no?"

"Understand perfectly."

"Ah, good. Then let us go to my office and be away from this drafty place." The man smiled and to his surprise, the smile actually reached the man's eyes. That was unusual down here in Rapture. "Follow me if you would please."

He and Anna followed Perreault into the nightclub with Winton following behind.

After passing an empty coat check desk they walked into a large lobby. On the walls were posters in French, pictures and paintings of Paris and prints of famous works by French artists that he recognized from Comstock's memories. More than a few posters were for a nightclub in Paris. He had heard about the place even in New York.

Anna's was trying to look in three directions at once. This place was much more interesting to her than the atrium had been. It surprised him slightly that Elizabeth didn't say anything.

Leading out of the lobby were a number of passages, the largest one ahead and led to a huge room with a large stage. Not going to be having any shows in there for awhile though. All the tables had been pushed aside and crates and boxes covered the floor. He could see five people at work, two young ladies that looked like they had been dancers held clipboards and directed three men moving the boxes.

Perreault turned to look at them. "In times like these one must be flexible." Their host explained without prompting.

"Not many looking to go to nightclubs now I suppose."

"No, there are not. So I have become a trader of sorts and how do you say? Middle man."

"You help arrange deals."

"Yes and act as a neutral party to hold goods being traded."

"For a small commission of course."

"Of course! The staff have their families that must be cared for." He nodded his head indicating another corridor which had a sign that "Private Rooms" over it. Guess the staff and families lived in that section of the club now. Perreault turned and went down a passage labeled "Employees Only".

"So, Monsieur…?"

"Boston, Robert Boston."

"Monsieur Boston." Perreault was quiet for a moment as if puzzling out something.

They came to a door with "Directeur Général" in gold letters on it. Perreault opened the door for them and asked them to enter and take a seat after which he told Winton to stay outside. The office was large, but not extravagant. There was a large wood desk with several piles of paper in neat sacks. Along the right wall there were five filing cabinets and a monitor mounted above them that showed the view from the Security Camera above the door outside.

To the left was a small bar and a bookshelf while the wall behind the desk was simple wood paneling with a pair of doors. He guessed one was a bathroom and the other a small bedroom. Perreault seemed to be the type of man who would work to late and slept in his office often. But he was going to do it comfortably. Scattered on the walls where more paintings and photographs of different parts of Paris.

*This Perreault really seems to miss Paris.* Elizabeth told him.

*Wonder why he's down here then.*

As he and Anna made themselves comfortable Perreault went to the bar. "Would you like a drink Monsieur Boston? I know it is rather early, but I have so few chances to share these days."

"Thank you, but don't drink anymore."

"Ah, and the young mademoiselle?" When he hesitated a moment Perreault continued. "Come now, I would be a very poor Frenchman if I did not notice such a lovely young lady entering my establishment, no matter how she is dressed."

*I guess we can't fool everyone.* his daughter lamented.

*No. Don't think we need to worry about Perreault though.*

He turned to his daughter. "Want anything Anna?"

She thought a moment. "Just some water please."

"Water it shall be then." Perreault said with a small smile and turned pick up a glass. He seemed genuinely please by Anna's presence.

Perreault handed the glass of water to Anna who politely thanked him. Then he seated himself on the other side of the desk and started to talk.

"I believe you are traveling to a place that will be safe for your little one, no?"

"Yeah. The tram tunnel is blocked to the north. Just trying to get around it."

Perreault thought a moment. "You are going to Athena's Glory then?"

This Perreault was a lot better at guessing than he liked. "Yes."

"You will not be able to find the path you seek without my help Monsieur Boston. I shall be happy to do so, but I will require a small service from you in return."

Just. Great.

"It should not be overly difficult for a man of your skill. I only wish you to bring me something from my apartment."

"What would it be and where is this apartment?"

"Oh, my apartment is just above..." He glanced upward. "what I want is a painting."

"What's to keep you from getting it?"

"You are shrewd. A man, or he used to be one, Bernard Callahan. He lived not far from me, he did not seem to be a bad man, until he started splicing."

"Know what he spliced?"

"Many things. And then there are his machines. He was some sort of expert in them. My people would not stand a minute."

"But I would."

"Yes, I do not send you to kill this man, I want only my painting."

*What do you think?" he asked Elizabeth.

*I think he has us over a barrel unless you want to beat the information out of him.*

"You need not be concerned that I will not fulfill my end of the bargain Monsieur Boston. If I am to stay in business I must have a sterling reputation." He paused as if to think a moment. "Also, I suspect I would not live long if I betrayed you, yes?"

"Let's say I've never liked welshers. Rather surprised you're so trusting of me."

"I saw you outside. You fight only if threatened and I am certainly not a threat. And a man in my position does hear things from time to time. "

*I think he's got you figured out. Even in Columbia you tried to avoid fights if you could.*

*Lot of good it did.*

"Ok, you got a deal, what do I need to do?"

They spent the next five minutes talking. Where Perreault's apartment was, how to get the painting and the like. Perreault then escorted them back to the door of the Les Nuits de Paris. Strangely Winton was nowhere to be found when they left. Neither he or Elizabeth liked that very much, but Perreault didn't seem concerned.

"Monsieur Boston, are you sure you do not want to leave the child here? It would be safer, no?"

Before he could respond Anna pulled at his sleeve. Looking at her, she shook her head.

*I have to agree. I don't think Perreault would do anything to me, but I would still feel safer with you.*

"Don't think she wants to stay."

"As the Mademoiselle wishes." Perreault said with a polite smile. "Bonne chance."

*Good luck? If we had THAT we wouldn't be in Rapture.* Elizabeth groused.

"Let's go." His daughter took his hand and they walked down the passage towards the building's atrium. *Maybe our bad luck is someone else's good luck.*

Elizabeth didn't say anything until they were halfway to the elevators.

*I suppose you're right. If I hadn't come here to kill Comstock, Sally still would have been killed when they were done with her, just like with the other Little Sisters. But you and Anna, neither of you deserve to be dragged into this.*

*Not about deserving anything. But if we hadn't destroyed the Tear Machine, Ryan would be kidnaping girls to make into Little Sisters. Didn't want to come to this damn city any more than you did, but least we saved a few people.*

*You did. I didn't do anything.*

*Think I could have done half of what we did without you talking me through?*

*Humph! So I'm the "native guide" now?* she said in a tone of mock indignation.

They were at the elevators now and he hit the button to summon one. He glanced at Anna who had small smile, almost a smirk, on her face.

*Know you're smiling?*

*Huh? I guess I am.*

One of the doors opened. He checked to make sure it was safe, then motioned to his daughter.

*I hadn't thought that she would be so affected by my mood. I guess it's a good sign.*

He hit the button for the floor they needed and the elevator doors closed.

*Good in what way?"

*It means I'm not so... That isn't the right way to put it. It means the part of me that remembers isn't as separate from the rest of me as before. Hopefully.*

*What do you think will happen when you are not… separate?*

*I'm not sure. Hopefully, I will forget.*

The elevator door opened before he could respond.

No one was outside the elevator door and he didn't hear anything. He carefully leaned out of the elevator and looked around while Anna stayed in a corner of the elevator. The corridor was thirty feet wide with large plant filled vase's and pillars seeming placed at random. While there still enough light to see, many of the lights weren't working and it was dark and gloomy.

Style here was a bizarre mixture of Art Deco and ancient Greco/Roman. Pillars would either be alongside the walls or in little alcoves. At least there were enough places to take cover. Far end of the corridor to the left was one of the old style air vents. Hadn't been converted to a Little Sister Vent yet. Doors looked to be heavy wood with names emblazoned on plaques above them. Most of the doors had older style locks on them and not many with number locks. Some of the doors looked to be open, but not many. Guess them that lived here had a chance to lock up before leaving.

If they left, where would they go?

Was fire damage on the walls and floor. Odd pattern to the burns. Almost as if they sprayed with burning fuel. No dead bodies at least.

_The Parasite hates three things: free markets, free will, and free men. _

To the right some way down was some kind of statue standing in the middle of the corridor with its back facing him. Looked like it was made of pieces of different machines. Steel, some of it painted in different colors, pipes, iron, brass, tin cans and the head looked like it was made of parts from a Security Camera. Arms and legs looked thin, almost like a skeleton. Why would…?

The "statue" moved with a clanking and whirling noise. Definitely NOT a statue. Some kind of automaton. It took a step to one of the open doors door and "looked" inside. A bright light came from the automaton's head to play around the inside of room.

He was getting a very bad feeling about this, but at the same time it felt…familiar. Whatever it was, it didn't seem to have a weapon. The statues head suddenly turned his way the light filling the corridor and he managed to get back into the elevator just in time.

*A Security Camera?* Elizabeth asked and Anna tipped her head to the side in puzzlement.

*Camera on…legs.* Now he knew what that things seem familiar. Reminded him of Comstock House a little. Least they didn't have to worry about tear warped madmen in Washington masks attacking them. The light outside the elevator vanished.

*A what?*

*Sorry, an automaton with a Security Camera for a head.* he told her as he started switching his Gear to better deal with machines.

*They call them robots now.* she noted absently. *Hope there isn't anything similar to a Motorized Patriot.* He hoped the same thing.

He reloaded the Tommy Gun with Armor Piercing Rounds and the shotgun with Electric Buck.

*When Perreault said machines, wish he would have mentioned they weren't just Turrets and Security Bots.*

*He may not have known. I got the impression he had been living in down there for some time.*

He stole a glance down the corridor. The camera robot was gone.

He bent down low and to the mask off his face. "Stay behind me and be ready to hide. There are machines here that can walk around and you mustn't let them see you. Just stay out of the light, understand?" She nodded and he gave her a smile. "Good."

When his mask was back in place, he stepped out of the elevator and started down the corridor.

Anna/Elizabeth

Her father was being very careful not to let one of the robots sneak up on them. Unfortunately Perreault's apartment was some distance from the elevators and it would take them past the apartment owned by Callahan.

There was a clanking sound ahead of them she ducked behind a pillar as her father ducked down a huge vase with a dried out palm tree in it. There wasn't any light, so she peeked out. Walking across the corridor intersection ahead was a thin human sized machine made of all different kinds of mechanical parts.

'Was that a toaster built into its back?'

The robot moved slowly, pausing after each step it took as if the impact of a foot hitting the floor knocked a connection loose for a moment.

*Booker, see if the Research Camera will work.*

Without responding he quickly got out the camera and was able to snap two pictures before it went out of sight.

*Sorry, had forgotten about it.*

*You've have had a few other things on your mind. What does it say?*

*Says name is "unknown" but "subject" is vulnerable to Armor Piercing Ammunition and Hacking.*

*I think we both guessed it would be vulnerable to Armor Piercing rounds. But it's good to know they can be hacked.*

The robot she saw looked like it have been built from scavenged parts and it was likely the "brain" of the robot came off some other machine and had been reprogrammed. Despite herself she was impressed by the work this Callahan had done.

Another example of how cities like Columbia and Rapture produce wonders, only to destroy themselves with what they had created. And it happened over and over again.

Her father was moving down the corridor to the intersection. He looked down then looked the direction the robot had gone then turned back towards her and motioned it was safe.

*Wonder how many of those things there are?* her father wondered.

*That wasn't the same one you saw before?*

*No. Looked similar, but not the same. Seem to be on patrol.*

They continued on their way. They went past a large burn mark on the floor and she paused to examine it. There was the outline of a human body in the char and drag marks indicating it had been dragged away.

She told her father who was unsurprised. He told her that someone had used a Chemical Thrower and that it had been recent given the smell. What worried him was who or what had used it. One of the rooms they passed had the door ripped apart by something with claws. Several other doors had huge scratches on them as well.

Booker examined several of them. "Lot bigger than a bears." He said half to himself.

They came up to the next intersection. From Perreault's instruction they should take a left and it would take them to what he told them was a sitting room. From there it was down another corridor to Perreault's apartment.

Somehow she didn't think it was going to be that simple.

As they got closer to the sitting room they heard one of the robots. It was in the room they needed to pass through. After taking cover behind a pillar they waited for the robot to leave. It didn't. Instead it just seemed to be walking slowly about the sitting room, like it was some kind of sentry. Her father was getting out the Remote Hacking Tool when they heard gunfire and screams of "Destroy that hunk of junk!" and "Kill it! Kill it!" A moment later an alarm went off.

"Stay here." He told her and quickly moved forward to where he could see into the sitting room. There was more gunfire then she heard the distinctive whirl of Security Bots. But not from the direction of the sitting room. The Bots were behind them! She turned around and a pair of Bots sped past them. Her father had to flatten himself against the wall to avoid them.

There was a small explosion and more gunfire followed by screams of pain. She heard one of the Bots "die" and a few moments later the screaming stopped. Her father got his machine gun ready, but didn't fire. After a few moments a Security Bot trailing sparks and smoke flew slightly unsteadily down the corridor back in the direction it had first come from. It didn't react to either of them.

Her father looked over the area and then motioned her to join him.

As she walked up, she realized a few things didn't match up. She hadn't heard the Security Bots fire machine guns. She though back and built one of the Security Bots that had flown past them in her mind. The Security Bot hadn't carried a machine gun, but something that looked like a small Chemical Thrower. Other aspects of the design had been modified as well.

When she caught up to her father she could see there were three corpses that still had smoke rising from them in the sitting room. In about the middle was a pile of twisted metal that certainly had been the Sentry Robots. The "sitting room" itself was two stories tall with stairs and a balcony on the left and a huge bay window on the right. Through the window they could see Athena's Glory.

"So close and yet so far." her father said to himself. On a table by the window was an Audio Diary.

_Bernard Callahan: Missing Time_

_January 19, 1959_

_My head doesn't feel right. There's something wrong. It's like being asleep, but I'm doing things. Yesterday I found myself taking apart a Circus of Values. I don't remember why? Why..wh..hhch_

_(12 seconds of silence)_

_I must protect myself. They're OUT there, waiting. They want to hurt me, kill me. I can't trust anyone, can't trust anything. I can Only trust my creations. They will protect me. They will protect me against anything, everything. _

There were two corridors that connected to the sitting room and what looked like a small library. They quickly checked to see there were no more splicers or another one of the robots around. While they were in the library she started searching, likely looking for a Pep Bar. All she found was a lock pick.

*Booker, why do you think those splicers were up here? With all these robots and Security Bots I didn't think there would be any here.*

*Didn't expect them either. Think they might be part of the same bunch from down below. Came up here looking for someone to kill.*

*They went looking for someone to kill and were killed themselves.*

Her father then took a moment to look of the destroyed robot and found some film. Then they went to the corridor that would take them Perreault's apartment.

Some distance down the corridor was another of the Sentry Robots. Like the one in the sitting room this one didn't seem inclined to go anywhere. It just stood and slowly turned its head back and forth as it searched for intruders.

First her father researched the robot and then pulled out the Remote Hack Tool. Might be nice to have one of those on their side. He fired and quickly backed out of sight to start the hack. A few seconds later the remote hack was successful and they looked down the corridor.

The Sentry Robot was still and dark.

"Light out." she told him in a slightly puzzled tone. *It would seem that hacking them shuts them down.*

"Means it's safe now." *Won't be raising an alarm and that's what matters.*

They started walking down the corridor. Just past the deactivated robot was an intersection take a right and down five doors was Perreault's apartment. As they got close to the robot they heard something ahead of them. A heavy tread of footsteps, two sets of them. Whatever made them sounded big and heavy and much too close to a Motorized Patriot for her comfort.

Her father tapped her on her head to get her attention. She looked at him and he motioned they should go back to the sitting room. They had gotten about ten feet down the corridor when they heard a Sentry Robot ahead of them. Being trapped between there robots seemed a very bad place to be. Her father looked around but there was no way out. Or was there?

*Booker! Tell Anna to pick a lock on one of the doors!* There were no door with a number lock nearby else her father could have used an Auto Hack.

He whispered to her "Can you pick the lock on one of these doors?"

She nodded and quickly went to work. It was only a few moments and the lock opened. Her father snatched her up as the door opened, rushed in and closed the door behind them.

The room was surprisingly quiet. Even listened as hard as she could, she just barely hear the heaviest footsteps from outside and could hear nothing of the Sentry Robot. The soundproofing here was much better than in her old apartment. When she sneezed that old creep who lived next door would say "gesundheit."

While they waited for the the robots to move on her father turned on the lights so they could look around a little. The living room was bigger than her entire apartment had been. As was common for the rich in Rapture, the room was extravagant. Expensive furniture, lamps with gold and ivory inlay, a huge television, wood paneling and a massive chandelier hanging from the ceiling twenty foot over their heads.

They didn't spend much time searching the apartment, but she did notice there didn't seem to be any food and that bothered her. In the master bedroom of the apartment they found the former residents. A woman and man in bed. The woman was on her side and she had been shot in the back of the head. It looked as if she had been sleeping when it happened. Beside her was a man who had shot himself in the temple.

"Murder suicide." her father said a bit sadly, but also with a hint of disgust. "Time to go."

*You've seen this before?*

*Yeah. Some fool decides to kill them self, but kills another first.*

'At least the woman didn't feel anything.' Something bothered her about the two corpse. They had looked thin, emaciated.

They listened at the door a short time but didn't hear anything. Her father opened the door and carefully looked about. *Think I should have you wait in here?* he asked.

*While it might be safer, I wouldn't be very comfortable being alone here.*

He nodded slightly. "It's clear, now stay close."

They left the apartment and went down the hall. The Sentry Robot was still shutdown and didn't react when they walked past it. The door to Callahan's apartment was closed and they couldn't hear any sounds coming from it. It was only a short distance to Perreault's apartment. Her father opened the door to with the key he had been given.

They were safe, at least for the moment.

Perreault favored the use of the Art Nuevo style for his apartment. It was brightly colored and everything seemed to have curve in it. Very different than Art Deco's hard geometric shapes. Much of the furnishings looked expensive, but this room didn't seem to be for showing off, it was intended to be comfortable. There had been some Art Nuevo in Columbia, but she didn't think Comstock had favored it. On the floor behind a small table near the door was an Audio Diary. Again it was in French.

_Louis Perreault: Paris _

_August 13, 1956_

_I miss my city still. While Rapture has many opportunities and I have done well for myself, I still find myself wishing I was home in Paris. But that is not to be. My former partner Claude has assured that I will never see Paris again unless it is from a jail cell, if I lived that long. My dealings with smugglers and having to serve those Germans swine to keep from being shot made it easy to convince others I betrayed my countrymen. Claude framed me perfectly for his crimes. May he Rot In Hell!_

They headed for a door on the left side of the living room. Unlike the outside door which had a normal lock, the lock here was a high end number lock in a reinforced housing.

Her father punched the code 1901 into the lock and the doors slid open and lights turned themselves on to illuminate over a dozen paintings and prints on the walls and several small statues on pedestals in the center of the room.

"Own private art gallery." her father mused.

She stood and looked at the paintings as her father headed for the far end of the room where the painting Perreault wanted so badly.

*Huh, think I seen this one.* he told her after a moment.

*Really? I didn't realize you were a patron of the arts.*

These paintings used a great number of warm bright colors and were almost garish at times. But they had a life, an honesty to them that she didn't see in Cohen's work. She knew that Anna liked them as much as she did and she took her time looking at each one.

*Remember this from last time.* he took the painting off the wall and worked to remove it from its frame without damaging it. *It's by an artist in Paris, something about him being short. He liked to paint the Parisian, ah, night life.*

*Night life, huh?* she asked as she looked at a painting that clearly depicted several prostitutes.

Her father was carefully rolling the painting up now. *What would you call it?*

*I suppose there aren't many polite terms that can be used.*

She was looking at another painting now as her father walked to a carefully camouflaged closet on the back wall.

She followed him over and looked into the closet to see it full of packing material, tubes and boxes. *It would seem that Perreault planned ahead. There's enough here to pack up all this artwork*

*Guess he didn't believe much in Rapture.*

*I would say that's a point in his favor.*

Her father picked up a hollow tube and inserted the painting into it. She picked up another one and examined at it. It just wasn't a simple cardboard tube. It was reinforced and coated with plastic inside and out. There were caps on both ends so it could be tightly sealed. She suspected the seal would be airtight.

"Ok Anna, let's go back downstairs."

"Can we go then?"

"Just have to give this to Mr. Perreault and then we can leave."

"Ok." She said without energy.

They listened for a few moments at the door, but didn't hear anything. Her father opened the door to find a man standing there. The man looked to be in his fifties, with light blond hair going grey. He hadn't shaved recently and had small ADAM scars on the right side of his face trailing down his neck. He was dressed in a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up above the elbows and medium grey pants. His hands, shirt and pants had grease and dirt all over them.

Behind the man stood two large robots, seven foot tall at least. On the right was something that looked like a bear and was mostly covered in brown fur and cloth. The large metal claws on its "hands" looked very sharp. The other figure looked like a clown. Its head was covered by a huge clown mask with bizarrely large smile, the body wore a loose fitting bright green and white suit and oversized shoes had been put on its feet. The large bulges on its forearms suggested that it might be armed with some kind of weapons.

Her father very deliberately didn't move so as to cause the robots to attack. Either one of them looked as if they could smash through the door if he tried to shut it. She backed up a step. The last thing her father needed was to have her underfoot if he had to fight those two things.

The man looked at them with a slightly puzzled expression for a moment, then smiled a little before speaking.

"Hi, my name's Bernie. Who are you?"

End Chapter 68

Authors Note. I apologize if I made any mistakes with the French.


	69. Chapter 69

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 69

Anna/Elizabeth

"Hi, my name's Bernie. Who are you?" the man asked her father as the two huge robots behind him stood poised to attack.

Bernie? This was Bernard Callahan!

If nothing else her father could react quickly in situations like this. "Robert Boston. Nice to meet you Bernie." He told the man in a friendly tone and held out his hand for Bernie to take.

Bernie took his hand and shook it with a big friendly smile. "Are you a friend of Mr. Perreault?"

"He asked me to get something for him."

Bernie looked a little unsure. "He gave me his key." her father explained. There was something different about Bernie. Something about his face, no, the way he held his face, and his reactions. They were not that of an adult.

*Booker, I think he's like a child.*

Bernie looked happier now. "Is he alright? I haven't seen him for a little... while." He seemed confused for a moment.

*Was thinking the same thing.* He father responded. "Mr. Perreault if fine. He's been very busy at his club and just didn't have the time to get up here."

The childlike splicer smiled at that. "That's good, he's a nice man." Bernie looked at her. "So who's your friend?"

"This is Anthony, he doesn't talk much."

She nodded her head. *Anthony! Why did you choose THAT name? You should have...*

*Later, please?*

*Humph!* 'You've not hear the last of this Mister DeWitt!'

"You look like a nice young man." the splicer said with a smile and then his eyes lit up. "Oh! I have something to show you!" he blurted out.

"Sorry, but we are a little pressed for time." her father told him.

"It will only take a minute! This is Great!" With that Bernie took off down the hall. The two robots just stood there. Bernie came back after a moment. "I sorry! This is Tim the Clown and Barry the Bear. I made them." he said proudly.

Bernie walked back down the hall waving his arms to get them to follow him. "Come on, come on!"

"Come along Anthony." her father told her.

*We could make a run for it.*

*Don't think we'd get far. Angry children can be mean and don't want to do something to set him off.*

They started walking after the childlike splicer with "Tim" and "Berry" following behind them.

*So it's best to play along then?*

*For now.*

The door to Bernie's apartment opened by itself when they got near and they stepped into what had been one been the apartment's living room. Now it was an extremely cluttered workshop. Tables and benches covered with all different sorts of tools and mechanical parts as well as random pieces of metal were all over. Tacked on the walls were schematics of all sorts of different robots and machines. The chandelier had been replaced by spotlights illuminated the center of the room and a large table. On the table was a complex assembly of mechanical parts, another of Bernie's robots. Ropes and chains hung from the ceiling in different places.

Along the left side of the room were tables that held partially assembled or disassembled Security Bots along with two incomplete Sentry Robots. On the floor to the right were the remains of the Security Cameras and a Circus of Values that had been cut open with a blow torch. Next to it was a drill press, band saw and a lathe. The air was heavy with the smell of grease, machine oil and sweat.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell.

She couldn't see as much as she would have liked. 'Hope I grow up a little taller this time.' Some of the other versions of her had been as more than four inches taller than she had been.

The clown robot chose that moment to let out a loud laugh. It was the same one used by the Circus of Values machines. It sounded even spookier coming from the robot.

The splicer went over to the table. "You have to see this!" he said with simple joy and started turning a crank on one side. The head of the table lifted and the feet lowered and they could see what a "great thing" it was.

"A rabbit?" he father said in surprise.

"A Bunny! He's going to hop and everything!" Bernie shouted happily.

What was it with this city and rabbits? At least the robot wasn't completed yet and wouldn't be a threat.

"What's his name going to be?" her father asked. He was studying the robot closely, looking for something.

The splicer stopped to think a moment. "Hadn't decided on one yet. How about Happy? Is that a good name?"

"Sounds like a good name to me." Anna went to tug at his sleeve. "I'm sorry Bernie, we really have to go."

The man looked sad for a moment, then brightened. "I could walk you to the elevator!"

"That would be fine." Bernie walking them to the elevator should keep the Sentries from summoning Security Bots.

She noticed that here father carefully examined "Barry" as they left Bernie's apartment.

*Don't think Tim and Barry are armored for a fight.* he told her as they walked towards the shutdown Sentry.

*You don't?*

*No. "Happy" looks a lot like that bear from what I can see. Might be able to fight, but they're not built to be war machines like the Patriots. Should be able to take them if I have to.*

*Unless they can summon Security Bots.*

*That would make things a little harder.* he admitted.

"Ah, what happened to you Sanford?" the splices said as he went up to the Sentry Robot that had shut down after her father had hacked it. "Looks like you had a little short. Just take a minute." Bernie opened up a door on the robots torso and did something she couldn't see. After a few moments the light on the robots head came on and she hid behind her father.

"There we go. Good as new!" the splicer closed up the door again and patted the robot on the head like it was a dog.

The Sentry turned and the light focused on her and her father. "Bernie? Could you..."

"Sanford, set Mr. Boston and his friend as neutral alert." He turned to them with a smile. "If you come back they Sanford will call me. You will come back, right?"

"Really can't say." her father told the splicer with a hint of regret in his voice.

"That's ok." Bernie smiled again, but it seemed different this time. A hint of something else in it. "I don't see anyone anymore and it gets a little lonely." There was a definite change in the tone of his voice.

They got to the sitting room and the splicer ran to the remains of the destroyed Sentry Robot.

"Todd! What did they do to you?" He whirled around to look at them anger consuming his face. "Did you do this!" he demanded.

"No, them that did it are there." her father told the splicer and pointed to the three dead bodies.

Bernie jerkily turned to look at the dead and then turned back to face them. His faces shifted through several different expressions as if he were fighting against himself. His face stilled and he smiled a little.

"Sorry about that. Sometimes I don't feel... myself." "Let's get you on your way." The splicer smiled, but there was worry in it.

They started walking to the elevators again and as they did she noticed another door with large claw marks on it. The claw marks where the exact size as the ones that "Barry" would make.

*Booker, I think I know why there isn't anyone else on this floor.*

*Bernie and his robots.*

*I don't think he chased the people off. I think he trapped them here.*

*They starved to death when the food ran out.*

*Or they tried to escape and the robots killed them. You would think someone would noticed.*

*With war on few would notice. Them that did, couldn't do anything. Or wouldn't.*

They weren't far from the elevators now and she noticed her father being careful to keep his hand near his shotgun.

Bernie stopped and gave a small chuckle. "You know? I have a Great idea!" he turned to face them, his force contorted in a wide grin and eyes wide open. "You should stay and never leave! Barry, Tim, get them!"

"Run for the elevator!" her father yelled and she scrambled down the corridor as the shotgun fired twice. Then there was the crack of the Air Grabber discharging a bolt of electricity.

She was at the elevator now and looked back a moment. Her father was backing down the corridor firing the machine gun at the bear shaped robot as it advanced on him. Bernie was leaning against the wall and clown robot started to jerkily move, small bolts of electricity from the Electric Buck still playing over it faintly.

She looked back at the elevator, but the door hadn't opened. Why? She reached and pressed the button to summon one. She glanced down the corridor just as Barry the Bear exploded. The clown robot opened its oversized mouth and flames spewed out almost hitting her father.

She started pressing the button as fast as she could.

She looked back again and her father had switched to the shotgun again and fired. That would keep Tim the clown out of the fight for a moment. But she saw a pair of Security Bots enter the far end of the corridor.

Hurry door! Open up!

Bernie had fallen to his hands and knees. He cried out "Stop! Stop! Override 64, Stop!"

The Security Bots stopped advancing and hovered in midair. The clown stopped moving, stopped breathing fire and stood at attention.

Bernie looked up at them, tears streaming down his face. "Run, please run. I'm sorry, so sorry."

Her father bolted towards her and the elevator doors started to open. As she climbed inside, Bernie started screaming "Stop them! Don't let the LEAVE!"

Then her father was in the elevator with her and slammed his hand on the button that would take them back to the lobby. As the doors closed a Security Bot flew up and unleashed a stream of napalm. Booker stood in front of the doors to shield her until they finished closing.

Then the elevator car started going down. She looked on in horror as her father calmly stood there and burned. "Daddy! Daddy!"

He held up a hand to stop her from coming closer. "It's ok Anna. It's ok. I have protection. The flames will go away in a minute."

It was actually only twenty three seconds, but it seemed much longer. "See I'm ok." She was still looking at him with great worry and took a step closer to him. She didn't understand.

*Booker, I think you better explain your Shield to me.*

"Anna, I have something called a Shield. It protects me from being hurt, understand?"

"But you've been hurt."

"There are limits to it, but that fire wasn't enough."

"You're not hurt?"

"No."

She ran up and gave him a hug. "That man was scary."

Her father got down on one knee to hug her back. "That he was, that he was."

A few moments later the elevator door opened. Her father switched the ammunition in his weapons as he examined the lobby. They hadn't been gone long, but more splicers could still have shown up.

"Seems safe. Let's go see Mr. Perreault and then we can be well shut of this place, ok?"

She gave him a little smile. This trip was starting to tax even her energy.

As they walked to the Les Nuits de Paris she thought about Bernie. Part of him had tried to help them against another part of himself. It was sickening how Rapture always managed find new ways to destroy people.

They got to the club without incident and her father pounded on the door. One of Perreault's thugs let them in, but didn't say anything other than "Mr. Perreault is waiting for you in his office." Winton was nowhere to be seen and that bothered her.

Her father knocked on the door to Perreault and it immediately opened. "Bonjour Monsieur Boston! I see you have been successful!" The smile on the man's face was large, joyful.

"Yeah, but you might have mentioned that Bernie had a seven foot tall robot bear." her father told him as he went to hand him the tube containing the rolled up painting.

Perreault took the tube, but his smile dimmed. "I assure you Monsieur that did not know of this. Monsieur Callahan has built such a thing?"

"And a clown to go with it."

"I did not know this. You and the young mademoiselle are well?" He seemed to be honestly concerned.

"Got out without getting hurt, but was a near thing."

"It is good you are well. You called Monsieur Callahan "Bernie"?"

"That's what he called himself. Acts like a child now, at least some of the time."

"And the rest of the time?"

"Tried to kill us or keep us from leaving."

"Again I am sorry Monsieur Boston, I did not know it was so bad." Then he smiled and started to open the tube. "But you succeeded!"

They watched as Perreault took the painting out of the tube and unrolled it to spread it on the top of his desk. "Ah, you are back with me again." He seemed a little misty eyed.

"Painting seems lot more important to you than just being worth money."

"Yes it is Monsieur Boston. This was the only thing I managed to leave my home with. It was a gift from the hand of the artist himself when I was but a young man." He stood and stared at the painting for a minute then shook himself.

"My apologies, I had thought to never see it again. So would you like to rest a time before continuing? The mademoiselle seems to be tired."

"No, think it be best to be along our way."

"I understand. If you will follow me I will show you the way."

They followed Perreault down the corridor and out into the lobby. In the lobby was Winton, two workman and one of the ladies he had seen earlier ordering the workmen around. They seemed to be working. Her father suddenly slowed his stride.

"Ah Winton, there you are. Would you be so kind as to..."

Perreault never got a chance to finish as Winton and the others all spun around with guns in their hands. She went to go find cover, but Winton yelled "Don't anybody move!"

She glanced at her father and he had his autopistol dawn and pointed at Winton's forehead.

"What is the meaning of this Winton!" Perreault demanded. He was off to the right side of her father.

"What the meaning of this is you stupid frog, is that I'm running this place now." Winton sneered at him. "I heard you talkin'. You think I'm going to let a fucking Little Sister get away from me?"

"I made a deal with the Monsieur and he fulfilled his end of it. The young mademoiselle's condition is of no importance!"

Winton laughed. "Not important! Do you know what she's WORTH?! We could make a deal with Ryan and be protected, live like kings! Not bustin' our asses in this god damned hole!"

"I will not..."

"Shut up frog! You with the little bitch! Put the gun down and send that thing over here and we'll let you live."

Her father didn't move and the gun stayed trained on Winton's forehead.

"What? You think you can take us? We got you four to one!"

Winton carried a shotgun and so did one of the workers. The other two just had pistols. She was quiet sure her father could kill all of them. They were just normal people, not splicers. One shot from the autopistol would likely kill any one of them.

"Giving you one chance. Leave now." her father's voice was low and hard, but she could hear the anger buried in it.

"Fuck You! I..." whatever he was going to say no one would ever know because her father fired, hitting Winton in the forehead just above the eyes. Startled, the others hesitated allowing her father to kill the worker with the shotgun with another shot to the head. That broke the spell and the two remaining people started firing wildly.

Several shots hit her father as he stood and quickly fired twice more. As the last of the attackers fell he quickly turned to look to make sure she was ok and missed Perreault collapsing to the floor.

*Booker! Perreault's been hit!*

He turned back to the man and saw him on the floor. She ran over as Booker grabbed one of his First Aid Kits.

"It seems... (cough) that I am not as bullet.. proof... as you are...(ah)… Monsieur Boston." There was blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he spoke. One of the rounds must have hit a lung.

"Don't worry about it." her father told the man as he used the First Aid Kit on him. He sighed a little as it took effect. She could hear people running. They must have heard the gunshots.

"Is he going to be all right?" she asked softly.

"He should be."

"Do not concern yourself with this old man mademoiselle." He certainly sounded better.

"YOU! Stop what you doing!" a woman yelled.

Perreault raised his hand weekly. "Alicia, it is fine. Monsieur Boston has likely saved my life."

Both she and her father turned to look at the woman. She had a pistol in her hand, but was slowly lowering it. She was a little older, maybe forty years old, but still an attractive woman even in her work clothes. She moved gracefully, probably a former dancer.

Other people came running into the lobby from different directions. They started yelling and asking questions.

"Mr. Perreault said it was ok!" Alicia yelled over them. "Rupert, Marco you stay and help Mr. Perreault up. Missy, find Mercer and tell him he has a patient. Everyone else, back to work!"

"Don't think he should be walking." her father told the woman as he stood up.

"You two" she told the Rupert and Marco "get a stretcher." Then she went to kneel by the injured man as she and her father stepped back from him. She and Perreault started talking softly.

*It seems that the First Aid Kits don't work as well on normal people as they do on splicers.* she observed.

*Something to keep in mind. Still seem to work for me ok though.*

*Likely a result of all the ADAM that's still inside you. It's stable, but it retains its ability to quickly replace damaged cells.*

Two men came back with a stretcher and carefully loaded Perreault onto it. Alicia stood back as they worked. As they started to carry the injured man away he waved weakly and called out. "I am in your debt Monsieur Boston. I will make it up to you."

Then Perreault was out of sight as he was carried towards his office.

Alicia looked at them. "So, Winton tried to pull something." It didn't seem to be a question. "Would have though Bambi would have been smarter than to throw in with them."

She looked at the dead bodies a moment with a sad and irritated expression. "What a mess to clean up." she muttered to herself. She turned back to her father. "Well, Mr. Boston is it? Mr. Perreault said I was to take you to the lower tunnel. Follow me please."

-Booker-

Perreault's assistant led them into the main room of the club. Was bigger than he thought, could seat well over a hundred people, maybe two. Not many people here now, just boxes, makeshift bins and storage crates all neatly laid out. On either side of the room were archways with doors. Most of the doors where closed but a few were open and had lights on. He couldn't tell much more than that though.

"Seems you're are doing well."

The assistant was heading for the stage. "A lot of it doesn't belong to us actually, just waiting to be shipped along."

He glanced at Anna to make sure she wasn't getting tempted to go examine something, but she wasn't.

*An interesting question is how did all this get shipped here and how do they ship it all out. They can't just run to the Jet Postal.*

*Not really our business. But would hazard a guess that everything goes through that arch over on the far left.*

*And why do you say that?*

*How this place is laid out. Most of the crates are on the left.*

*I can't see much from down here.*

"Want me to carry you?" he asked Anna.

She shook her head. *Sorry, I'm not that desperate to see everything.*

They climbed the steps and headed over to the right side of the stage. Lot bigger than he thought it would be. Looks like there was everything one needed for a Broadway play. They passed dressing rooms and then it was down a flight of stairs. Then they walked past racks of costumes, stage furniture and a large furnace. Some of the costumes, or how little there were of the costumes would have raised eyebrows even back in New York.

*You seem rather comfortable back here.*

*Here?*

*Back behind the stage. Most people get a little "star struck". It was the same back in Columbia at the Good Time Club.*

They passed a series of locked storage rooms and at the last one on the right their guide produced a key to open it. Other side of the door were stairs heading down.

*Had a few jobs on Broadway. Won't believe how much drama there is with the people who put on these shows.*

*I hope you didn't intend that pun.*

*Pun? What? Ah no.* Better change the subject.

"Don't mind me asking, how does Mr. Perreault ship everything." He asked Alicia.

"No big secret. There's a Jet Postal next door." she explained.

"Huh. Didn't see it."

"It's on the concourse, we had to break the wall down to get into it. Lucky for the people over there we did. They had been trapped for three days before we got them out."

"And now they work for you?"

"Some of them. Others didn't want to stay or couldn't." She sounded as if she didn't have much hope for them that left.

This was the third flight of stairs they had gone down. How many more where there? Turned out it was the last one. Didn't look like people came down here much. Dark enough that he got out his flashlight. There was old furniture, unused building material and old tools. Anna didn't seem very comfortable with all the darkness and stayed close. They walked a short distance to a Securis Door. Through a window they could see the glass tunnel that would take them back to the tram tunnel.

*Perreault was certainly right when he said we never would have found this place by ourselves.*

The guide went to the door control which had been partially taken apart. "Let me just fix this." She told them and worked a few moments before the door opened.

"Mr. Perreault said you were welcome to come back anytime, just make sure to call ahead." She looked at Anna and smiled a little. "And take care of your son."

"I will. Tell Mr. Perreault I said thank you."

"Good luck Mr. Boston." she said as the door closed behind them.

They started walking down the tunnel.

*Seems a few people have a soft spot for children.*

*Not nearly enough of them!* Elizabeth shot back angrily. *I'm sorry, it's not your fault. I hate this city Booker. I hate that I had to come back here again and be turned into a Little Sister. I hate that you nearly died. It's like a twisted replay of what happened to us in Columba.*

As Elizabeth spoke he was back in New York again, looking into a dark alley. Anna was beside him, a box of popcorn spilled on the ground. He was talking to someone, but he couldn't see who. She was hidden in the darkness of the alley. He KNEW who it was! He just couldn't remember.

He shook his head slightly to clear it and looked at Anna. She had a grumpy expression and looked at the tunnel ahead in disinterested way.

*Sounds to me like someone should take a nap.* he told his daughter.

Her shoulders slumped a little. *(Sigh) I suppose I could use one.*

Elizabeth was quiet for s short time as they walked. *You're right about what you said earlier. If you weren't here Ryan would be using the Lutece Device to kidnap children to become Little Sisters.*

*If you hadn't come back and let Atlas out of prison, Ryan would have been unstoppable. We did what we could. Getting you cured is what we need to do now.*

She was quite for a couple minutes. Then she looked up at him. "Are we there yet?"

He looked ahead and to the left. It was a short walk to the tram tunnel now. Once they were in the tram tunnel it wasn't far to Athena's Glory. "Not yet, but almost."

End Chapter 69


	70. Chapter 70

Bioshock Infinity: Union

Chapter 70

-Booker-

It didn't take long to walk the rest of the way down the tunnel to where it met up with the larger tram tunnel ahead. Neither Anna or Elizabeth were very talkative so it made the walk seem longer than it was. He offered to carry her a little while, but she decided to be stubborn and walk.

No surprise there.

The Securis Door opened without problems and they found themselves in a large but empty room with three passageways leading off from it. He looked up and the ceiling was a maze of pipes they didn't seem to go anywhere.

Anna looked a little more interested now, but not much.

"So, which way do you want to go first?" he asked her.

She considered the question a moment before pointing to the passage on the left wall. "That one."

*You're letting me chose which way we go?* Elizabeth seemed more amused than puzzled.

*One way is as good as the other.*

They passed several rooms that where empty of everything but old metal shelves. Likely more leftovers from when the city was built. Just past one of the empty rooms were a number of brass colored metal grates. On the other side of the grates water fell from above into pools of water.

Further along they found an abandoned office with five desks, some chairs, a beat up couch and half a dozen filing cabinets. The papers looked yellowed and the style of the furniture wasn't Art Deco. No way to the tunnel above.

"Nothing here for us." he told his daughter and turned to leave.

Anna didn't move for a moment then turned to follow him, but stopped again to yawn.

"Can I sit down?" she asked.

"Sure, how about the couch?'

Wordlessly she walked over and took a seat. Went to go sit with her, but before he could she was sound asleep.

'Finally ran out of steam.' He took one of the cushions from the couch and eased it under her head. Next he took off his suit jacket and covered her with it.

Not the best blanket, but it would do.

He took a seat at one of the desks. Might as well get off his feet a little. As Anna slept he looked through the papers on the desk. He tried the lamp and to his surprise it still worked. Order forms, schedules, balance sheets and the like. Glad he didn't have to push papers around all day. Looked like this place had been a temporary office for a company working on building Rapture. All the papers were from 1946 or 47.

He checked the filing cabinets and the other desks and found a New York City newspaper. Probably learn more about what was going on from it than a history book. He sat down and started reading. He was just about done when Anna started to stir.

He put aside the paper and watched as his daughter roused herself. She slowly sat up and stretched, knocking the hat off her head and his coat onto the floor. She went to rub her eyes, but her hands hit the googles she still wore.

As he stood she took off the googles and rubbed her eyes.

"Feeling better now sleepyhead?" he asked as he picked up his jacket.

She blinked and looked around a moment a little confused. Then she looked at him with a smile. "Better now."

"Good."

He gave her a short time to finish waking and get straightened up. Then it was back to the Securis Door they had come in at to look for a way up.

"How about I chose this time? One on the right."

The passage on the right turned out to be five rooms and a staircase that went up one floor to two more rooms. The rooms where totally bare and he didn't think anyone had been here for years. That lasted until they got to the last room on the second floor. There they found one of the newer style Little Sister Vents, three storage crates, a few tools and a pillow. Sitting on one of the crates was an Audio Diary

_Pablo Navarro: Easy Work_

_June 2, 1958_

_Some big wig got the bright idea to change all the covers on the air vents. Think they would have something better for us to do, but hey, not my problem. These vents are all over Rapture, lot of them in places the boss never even heard about. When I want an easy day, I get myself assigned to changing them and find a nice quiet place to take a nap. Dozens of places out there like this. But so long as I show up with an old vent cover, the Ausies none the wise._

*Dozens of places like this?* Elizabeth exclaimed. "No wonder Ryan and Atlas couldn't find Tenenbaum. She's probably hold up in someplace everyone forgot about.*

*Doesn't mean we can't find her.* he told her as she searched through the crates. Just some pieces of brass, three full bottles of Old Harbinger Beer, nine empty bottles of Old Harbinger Beer, a lock pick and two batteries.

*And how do propose to do that Mister DeWitt? Ask a friendly neighborhood splicer?*

*Didn't say it would be easy. But do have some experience at finding people who don't wasn't to be found.* Truth was, he was far from sure he could find Tenenbaum. He had no contacts in Rapture or even a clue on where she might be. Didn't even have a good picture of her.

They started walking back to the Securis Door. Only one passage left to check. It occurred to him he should have ask the guide how they could get up to the tram tunnel. Would have saved some time.

*I know you're not going to stop looking for her Booker, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. If I have too, I can wait until Jack gets here.*

*Rather get you cured before that.*

*Being a Little Sister isn't as bad as being in the Tower and we know I can be cured. Also my father is with me.*

*Makes a difference does it?*

*A small one.* she said with a playful tone.

The nap certainly improved her mood. When they got to the Securis door, they took the middle passage. It made several turns and when they came to another "waterfall" Anna stopped and cocked her head slightly.

He stopped and heard it as well. Music. Was coming from ahead of them, from around the next bend. He motioned for Anna to stay put. She nodded and he scouted ahead. As he got closer to the source of the music he realized he'd heard it before. Columbia, the music was from Columbia. Comstock's memories told him the name of the song, "Me and My Shadow".

'Who would…?'

No, there was someone who would. Best not to assume anything though. He moved a little closer and heard a voice. Just as he expected. He relaxed and turned to Anna, motioning that it was safe. While he waited he took off his mask. Anna seeing what he did she took off her goggles. She probably guessed who it was.

Elizabeth was certain. *So those two are back again.*

*Surprised?*

*Not at all.*

They walked around the corner and into a large room. The male Lutece was posed in front of fake window with fancy curtains and potted ferns around it. The other side of the window as a painted scene with clouds, two buildings floating in the distance and an airship that looked like it might be the First Lady. On a small table beside him was a gramophone which was the source of the music.

The female Lutece was standing by a large camera, looking at her brother through the camera's eyepiece. Rest of the room looked have been set up as a photography studio. There were of different backdrops against the wall with chairs and couches placed in front of them. There was door on the far side of the room with a sign saying "Dark Room". Near the dark room was a flight of stairs leading up.

The male turned slightly to see them better. "They've arrived."

"I know they arrived and don't move. Now turn your head back. No, too far. Yes, no, chin up."

He and Anna walked closer to the pair and watched for a few moments.

*I never would have expected Rosalind to be the type to take up photography as a hobby.* Elizabeth told him.

*They have all the time in the world.*

*More like too much time.*

"A little more to the left, no, too far."

"How long are you going to try and get this "proper" photograph?" Robert asked with a tired tone in his voice.

"Until I get one of course. You did agree to pose since you lost the bet."

"But I didn't expect it to be so bothersome."

"It would go faster if you weren't talking so much."

Behind the female was a table with some shallow rectangular pans and a dozen or so photographs hanging on wires to dry. He walked over to get a better look. They were all of Rosalind and she standing in the same pose as Robert was now. Anna followed him over and looked at the photographs as well.

There was a bright flash and the click of the camera.

"I suppose I owe Mr. Cunningham an apology. I would never have expected getting a proper photograph would be so difficult." the female said as she stepped back from the camera.

"Can I try?" Anna asked her.

Before the Lutece could respond he broke in. "Anna, leave her to her work."

The female Lutece looked a little loss for words for a moment, unsure how to respond. "Ah, thank you Mr. DeWitt."

Anna frowned a little and came back over to where he stood.

The female started telling the other how she wanted him pose again.

*I wonder what they are here for?* his daughter wondered. *It's not like these two to show up without a reason.*

*What might be a reason for them, might not be much of a reason for anyone else.*

"Since we have visitors perhaps it would be a good time to take a short break." The male Lutece asked hopefully.

"It most certainly is not." the other told him.

Cameras. On impulse he got out the Research Camera and took a picture of the male Lutece. Or rather he tried to. The camera said there was "No Subject". No surprised there.

Both the Luteces noticed his failed attempt and looked at him.

"Is there a problem with the camera…" one started

"Or with the photographer?" the other finished.

Anna looked at each Lutece in turn. She still hadn't made up her mind what to think of the pair.

"Problem with the subject. Seems that a Genetic Research Camera can't learn anything from someone scattered across time and space."

"That's hardly our fault is it?" the female said slightly defensively.

"Yes, they should have considered the possibility when designing the camera." the male agreed.

He had it now. "So what was the bet Robert lost?"

The female had a slightly satisfied look on her face. "My brother bet that you would use the crossbow to remove those at the barrier blocking the tunnel. Instead you chose to go around it."

More tests of variables and constants. "And you're likely not to tell me what happened with them that did try to clear the tram tunnel."

Anna was looking around again and noticed something on a table near the camera.

"It wouldn't compromise the experiment to tell him." the male stated to the other.

"No, I don't suppose it would."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw that Anna raised her hand.

"Anna, you know better." His daughter's hand dropped to her side and she went to look at backdrops.

The male started. "The others all won though the barricade..."

"and arrived at the portion of the tunnel above."

"And I must point out they arrived here much more quickly than you did." the male added.

He turned to check on his daughter a moment. "Might take longer, but made a useful contact." She was looking much too closely at what he thought was a bottle of developer fluid. "One moment please." he told the pair and walked over to her.

"Anna, what did I tell you?"

"Something funny." she told him.

He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Something's always funny when these two are around, so don't touch anything."

*You can say that again Booker.*

He stood back up. "Sorry. I..." Lutece were gone. He looked around, no they weren't. They were standing in front of the stairs leading up and were holding red pillows. Seemed to be waiting for them.

*Now what are they up to?* Elizabeth asked with more than a little suspicion her voice. Wished he knew.

"Let's go Anna." and they walked to where Lutece was standing.

"How did they get over there?" she asked him.

"It's.. hard to explain. Let's just say they can move around quickly when no one is looking at them."

"Should be watched all the time." she stated. *Huh, it would be interesting to see someone try.*

They got a little closer he could see something on the pillows. Small open boxes with something small and glittering in them. Jewelry. Then it hit him. Battleship Bay. The Bird or the Cage. Unfortunately, they couldn't get past the Luteces and up the stairs unless they played the game. When they got a few feet away he was able to make out the contents of the boxes.

They were brooches, but not the Bird or the Cage. The brooches were the same size as Elizabeth's Bird brooch he had in his pocket, but these were round. The one on the left had a stylized version of the Rapture Lighthouse in gold on a black background. Onyx maybe. Near the top was a large diamond held in the wings of the winged human figure. The boarder of the brooch was made of gold and set with smaller diamonds and with some kind of geometric pattern.

The broach on the right had some geometric pattern in silver on a black background. A chain? Ryan's Great Chain likely. The boarder was silver and had diamonds like the other did.

Lutece lowered the pillows so Anna could get a good look at them. "The Lighthouse" said one "Or the Chain." said the other.

Anna looked over both of them and made her pronouncement. "Ugly." *I totally agree.*

He looked up at the pair. Neither Lutece seemed surprised though the female had a slightly disappointed expression. The male asked "Perhaps you would like your father to choose one for you?"

"Ugly, already have one." His daughter told them.

That caught the two off guard. "You do?" "May we see it?" the two asked.

"See what?" Anna asked in an honestly puzzled voice.

"The brooch you just mentioned." The female asked in a slightly impatient voice.

"Don't have one, why did you say I did?"

"Since you don't have a brooch, would you like one of these? The Chain perhaps." The male encouraged.

"The Lighthouse is better." The other pushed.

"Ugly." Anna turned to look at him. "Can we go now?"

"Guess I don't have to make a choice." he told Lutece. He succeeded in keeping his sense of relief hidden.

"It would appear not." The female acknowledged a bit tersely as the two stepped aside to let them pass.

The male seemed didn't seem troubled at all. "I believe that we may be looking for the incorrect data."

"In what way brother?"

They started climbing the stairs and behind them as the two talked.

*That was close.* Elizabeth told him as Anna started humming along the song on the gramophone. *Why did I have to remember the brooch just then?*

*Guess seeing those broaches reminded you of the one you lost in Fontaine's.*

*Let's hope I don't see anything else to remind me of anything while those two are around.*

From below "I believe you are correct brother. The girl's dislike of the brooches is consistent."

"Since we have not been able to get the father to choose, I suggest we stop trying."

"Agreed. It would be more beneficial to study the girl's reaction."

The moment the female finished say "reaction" the music on the gramophone stopped. He put his hand on Anna's shoulder and motioned her to stay silent.

*What's wrong?* Elizabeth asked.

*Too quiet. Going to take a look.* He motioned for Anna to stay and he went back down the stairs. The room they had left less than a minute ago was totally empty. No Lutece, no camera, no backdrops, no furniture. He walked over to where the camera had been sitting and got down on one knee to take a close look at the floor.

No sign that the camera had ever been there. No sign that anything had been in this room for years other than some old foot prints.

He really wanted to get to Athena's Glory.

-Anna/Elizabeth-

Her father came walking up the stairs and told her to put her goggles back on. As she did so, he put his mask back on. *So what was down there?*

*Nothing.* he said slightly sourly and started walking up the stairs again.

*Nothing as in the Luteces were gone?*

*Nothing as in everything was gone. No camera, no furniture. Like it had never been there.*

*Humph. They probably moved it all to the next reality to bother another version of us.*

The stairs ended in the center of an empty room, but there was short passageway in the far wall and a door.

"Are we there yet?" How many times had she asked that? She had actually lost count.

"Shouldn't be far now."

They walked down the passageway and through the door. On the other side was another staircase going up. She looked up. "More stairs?"

"Looks that way. Want me to carry you?"

"Nope!" she told her father emphatically.

She took a moment to build how far they had climbed up in her mind. *Top of these stairs should bring us to the tram tunnel. There was a small building in the center of the tunnel right about here.*

*Guess we get to avoid the sewers then.* her father said with mock regret.

*Not going to hear me complain about it.*

*Why does Rapture even have open sewers?*

*Why does...?* She stopped to think.

Her father continued. *Doesn't rain down here. If there was anything more than a small leak they wouldn't be much good. One we saw outside Athena's Glory wasn't even in the right place to drain water. Should have been at the lowest point they could get it.*

*I didn't realize that you had such a keen interest in civic planning.*

They were getting near the top of the stairs now.

*Comstock had the interest, knew what New York was like. Filth running down the streets, overcrowding, garbage everywhere, disease, the flies, dead horses left in the street to rot.*

*All of New York was like Shanty Town?* She hadn't thought it was that bad.

*Parts of it, not all of it. A few parts were as fancy as anything you would find in Emporium.*

*Comstock wanted his showcase city to look pristine.*

*Yeah. Didn't care about how Finkton looked since none would see it.*

They were at the door now. The walls here were different. Instead of the concrete they were metal. Her father carefully opened the door while she stood a short distance back.

*So why did you stay in New York if much of it was so bad?*

The next room was only ten feet wide and twenty feet long and packed with tools, cleaning supplies different parts, two small electric motors and even a couple short pieces rail for the trams. The far wall of the room was taken up by a large set of doors.

"Huh, a maintenance shed." her father said to himself as he picked his way over to the other door and she carefully following him.

*Last time around would have felt like running. Also would have lost what little chance I had to get you back.*

*And this time?*

*Moved out to the outskirt of the city without all the people.* He tried the door. "Locked." "Anna, could you open this please?"

She smiled and went to look at the lock. "Too easy." She used a hairpin to open it. It still surprised her a little on how locks had failed to advance.

Anna stood back and her father pushed open the doors with his machine gun ready. He checked the area then motioned for her to come out. This portion of the tunnel had seen some fighting since they had been here last, but not as heavy as some of the other locations. She could see only two dead bodies and one pile of sandbags. The most important thing was that Athena's Glory was only 50 yards away and there was nothing in their way to slow them down.

"There it is Anna, where we will be living for a little while."

She looked up at tall building ahead of them. "How long are we going to be here?"

His shoulders slumped a little. "Not sure, think a year at least. But less than two years. Can you can do that?"

She smiled "I can do it!"

"That's my girl." her father said with a proud smile.

They started walking and as they got closer he took out the radio. "This is Boston. Anybody home?"

William's voice crackled over the radio just a moment later. +_Mr. Boston! Glad to hear you!_+

"Yeah, been a rough trip. Not far away now."

+_Just say the password and I'll let everybody know._+

"Root Beer." her father said with a note of disgust.

William chuckled a little. +_Everything will be set when you get here._+

*He makes it sound like they're giving you a party.*

*Hope not.*

They finished walking up the tunnel to the building. There was more damage here since Booker had escorted Lisa here, but it didn't look to bad. When they got inside they found that more defensive works had been put in place. The piles of sandbags on the upper levels had grown bigger and been reinforced with stones taken from the floor of the tram tunnel. There was also a turret at the top of the stairs sitting behind a short stone wall. It wasn't a bad idea. The turret could still fire, but it would be more difficult to hit.

Standing beside the turret was Sam. He waved at them and motioned that it was ok.

Her father lifted her from the tram tracks up to the platform then climbed up himself. As they did Sam started down the stairs towards them.

"Well look what the cat dragged in!" Sam called as he strode up. "And who's this?" he asked looking at Anna with a smile.

"Sam, this is my daughter, Anna. Anna, meet Sam."

"Hello Mr. Sam!"

The man gave a short laugh. "Just Sam." he told her with a smile. "Let go on up. Got a few people waiting for ya."

When they climbed the stairs she saw there were two more turrets. One at the top the stairs on the other side and a Rocket Turret guarding the walkway over the tram tracks. There were three people on "guard duty", two of which she recognized from Fontaine's and they started talking when they saw her father. The third person, a woman didn't seem to quite know what all the fuss was about.

"Looks like William's been busy." her father noted.

"Him and that Lisa girl. Having all these turrets made things a lot safer. Splicers don't like fighting 'em much."

"They prefer to kill people, not machines." Her father told the other man.

Once on the upper level they went to the elevator and took it up two floors. They exited into a small lobby where a group of people were waiting. Mary, Mr. and Mrs. Wildhelm, William, Lisa, Mary's brother Josh, Sergio and a few others of Clarice's group. They all came here to welcome them?

*Guess this is going to be home for awhile.* her father told her.

*I guess it is.*

End Chapter 70


	71. Chapter 71

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 71

Anna/Elizabeth

Mary and the others walked over with large smiles and many of them started talking to her father. They welcomed him, asked how it was "out there" and other things. Her father took off his mask and put on a brave face, but she could tell that he was a little uncomfortable with the situation. One person didn't go to talk to her father and it was Mrs. Wildhelm. She made a bee line for her and leaned down to talk to her.

"So who are you?" the woman asked with a warm smile. "My name is Joan."

"My name is Anna."

Mrs. Wildhelm smiled, but was still a little surprised. Then she looked her over with a disapproving eye. "Well!" she said huffily after a moment. "That is not how a proper young lady such as yourself should be dressed."

She looked down at her clothes, then back up at Mrs. Wildhelm. "I like these." she told the woman slightly indignantly.

"Didn't your mother teach you anything child?" she asked a little sadly.

"Momma's gone."

"Well that explains that! At least let's get those fool goggles off."

*Booker!* she yelled at her father as she shook her head. "Not supposed to." she told Mrs. Wildhelm.

"Foolishness." Mrs. Wildhelm declared and quickly raised the goggles off her eyes before she or her father could react. The woman upon seeing her eyes drew back a little.

"Shit." her father muttered under his breath.

"I'm sorry, I'm never seen..." Mrs. Wildhelm's face both sorry and ashamed.

She glanced over at her father and the group around her. They had known she was a Little Sister, but they still reacted upon seeing her eyes.

"Might was well finish taking them off Anna." her father told her.

"Let me help." Mrs. Wildhelm offered.

"No." Mary commanded. "She should wear the goggles, at least for a little while." She turned to her father. "A few don't know you daughter is a Little Sister yet."

"Didn't know how they would take it?" her father asked.

"More like not trusting them enough. I'm sure you realize that some people would see turning Anna over to Ryan as a way to gain favor."

"Already had some try it today." her father said with a slightly angry tone in his voice.

Mrs. Wildhelm fussed with her goggles and hat which made it a little difficult to keep track of what was going on.

Mary asked "What happened to…?" she raised a hand. "No, I can guess."

"There you go." Mrs. Wildhelm told her with a small smile as she finished.

"Thank you Joan." Mary told her before turning to her father. "Your daughter, she not like the other Little Sisters, is she?"

"No, whatever they do to the Little Sisters, didn't work so well on her. There are a few problems, but we can manage."

"We don't have to worry about her going and looking for dead bodies, do we?"

"Yuck."

"Not at all." her father told them all.

Xin spoke up. "Then I expect her to be at school tomorrow."

"Xin." Mary warned.

"The girl needs an education and..."

Her father put his foot down. "We'll talk about this later. Right now we could use some rest and something to eat."

Xin went to say something, but her father fixed her with a look and she closed her mouth. She got the impression not many people could quiet down Xin. Probably why she got sent to Fontaine's.

And going to school? Like THAT would work in her condition. She can't see to read and her being a Little Sister would certainly cause problems with the other children. Probably be extremely boring.

"If you would follow me Mr. Boston, Anna." Mary turned to her brother. "Josh, I know it's not meal time, but is there anything you could get them?" Mary asked her brother.

"I can get some sandwiches and milk." he told her and took off.

Mary started walking down the corridor and she, her father and both Wildhelms followed. The rest went back to whatever they had been doing. Another typically poor Rapture design. The elevator for the tram station on the first floor only went up few stories and you had to walk to another bank of elevators to get to the upper floors. As they walked Mary started to explain how things worked in Athena's Glory.

"To keep from wasting food we all eat up in the restaurant upstairs."

"Food that short?" her father asked.

"No and we look to keep it that way. Your friend over in North Garden Hall has given us some good deals on food, but right now we don't have a whole lot to trade with."

"Sure Perreault would be able to think of something."

"Oh, you know him?" Mary seemed a little surprised.

"Met him on the way over. Had to do a small job for him to get here."

Mary gave a small sigh. "That sounds like him. Perreault bargains hard and we don't have much to bargain with. We have a lot of money, but it's not worth much now. People want food, weapons and ADAM."

Rapture seems to be using the barter system even more than she expected. *Booker, Perreault could use some new turrets, couldn't he?*

*Thinking the same.*

"Think you could make more turrets?" he asked Mary.

She thought a moment "We should, but not many."

"Perreault could use a few new ones."

"We can make most parts of a turret thanks to you and Lisa, but there are a few things we can't make. And sending people out to get parts would be suicide." Mary stopped and turned to her father. "You just traveled halfway across Rapture with a little girl and you don't have a scratch. Are you sure you aren't still spliced?" She didn't seem to be making an accusation, just making sure.

"As I said in the letter, I'm cured."

Mr. Wildhelm spoke up. "You're going to have to explain that to us Mr. Boston. None of us has ever heard of a cure."

"My being cured was a one-time deal and more an accident than anything. Damn near killed me and would have killed anyone else."

Mr. Wildhelm had a thoughtful expression. "Let me guess, all those Infusions."

"Can tell you all of it later." her father turned back to Mary. "Yes, I can go out and search for the parts you need."

Mary was thinking. "That could work. Turret manufacturing would give us something valuable to trade with. We can talk about more after you get settled in." She turned to Mrs. Wildhelm. "Would you care to give them a tour and show them the apartment?"

"Of course dear." Mrs. Wildhelm told her. She was getting the impression that Mrs. Wildheldm was as much a leader here as Mary in some ways. She wondered how her father would fit into this social dynamic.

How would SHE fit into it? Time would tell.

Mrs. Wildhelm first led them to the next set of elevators. When they arrived they found a turret there and a woman on guard duty she didn't recognize. Mrs. Wildhelm introduced her as Sasha.

Sasha give her father a smile and looked him over like he was a piece of meat she wanted to take a bite of. When Mrs. Wildhelm made a point of introducing her to Sasha, the woman backed off somewhat and she politely greeted her. Guess her father having a child was going to cool down at least some women's attentions.

Good.

As they rode the elevator up Mrs. Wildhelm told her father that a few of the younger ladies had a problem keeping their hands to themselves, then picked up where Mary had left off explaining how Athena's Glory worked.

There were three meals a day and the time to eat lasted only an hour and a half. If you missed a meal, you went hungry unless you bought something from a Circus of Values. They did make exceptions for special occasions which it seemed their arrival counted as.

There was a small armory where extra weapons and ammunition was kept. An old man by the name of Archie watched over the place and kept the weapons in working order. Booker didn't like that it there was only a simple lock on the door to keep people out. Down the hall there was a machine shop. Or the closest thing they could manage. They had cleared out an apartment and moved what tools and a few smaller pieces of heavy equipment they had been able to find into it including a U-Invent. Inside, William and Lisa were already at work on something.

Then it was the restaurant, clothes washers and a few other sundry locations such as daycare/school and the common area. At last they came to their new home. At the door was a tray with a couple of sandwiches and two glasses of milk. Josh worked fast. Mrs. Wildhelm gave her father a pair of keys and told them the clothes that had been sent earlier were already inside.

"Seems to be a little ways away from everyone else." her father noted.

Mrs. Wildhelm gave a small and slightly uncomfortable smile but it was Mr. Wildhelm that answered.

"Mary thought it was a good idea for you to have a little space."

"Have to remember to thank her."

Both the Wildhelm's smiled and said they would see them at dinner.

*I suspect Mary put us out there in case something went wrong, with either of us.* she told her father.

*Can't really blame her.* "Come on Anna, let's see what our new home is like." he said as he handed her one of the keys.

She looked at it. Just a normal key. She wondered if giving her a key was the best idea. "Now you only use that in an emergency." he told her. "And you know what I mean by "an emergency", Right?"

She nodded her head emphatically. "Yes daddy!" Why did she have a feeling there was another story behind that she didn't want to know?

Her father then opened the door into the apartment and turned on the light before locking the door behind them. She decided since they were alone it was ok to take off her goggles. Much easier to see now.

The room they were in looked to be the living room. It was large, but nothing like the ones they had seen in Chronos Estates. The furniture was typical Art Deco and consisted of two couches, five chairs and several tables. There was no television in the room nor anything that indicated that they apartment had been occupied before. Sitting just to the right of the door were the clothes they had sent ahead. There were three archways leading out of the living room.

Her father walked over to one of the tables and ran his finger along the top and looked at it. "Not much dust." He turned to her. "Stay with me until we've looked everything over."

She knew he trusted Mary and the rest of Cleric's people some, but he was still going to be cautious.

The room on the right was a dining room with a large table able to seat twelve people comfortably. She didn't think it would get much use. There were no dishes or silverware in any of the china cabinets. Pre-furnished apartments couldn't have everything. In the back wall of the dining room was another archway that led to the kitchen.

Her father looked around the large kitchen, but didn't say anything. He checked the stove and a few of the cabinets and found them empty. She looked in a few cupboards and the pantry, but they were empty as well. No food to cook and nothing to cook it with. Seemed the only dishes they would have would be the tin ones her father had. And since everyone ate in restaurant it seemed likely even those would not get much use.

The kitchen had a second archway that led them back into the living room. Then it was through the last archway which turned out to be a corridor. The first room they found was a moderate sized study or den. While there was a desk and other furnishings, all the bookshelves were empty.

The last four rooms were bedrooms and the bathroom. Her father gave her the master bedroom and took a smaller one for himself. He took a moment to look around for a linen closet. As he looked through it she started wondering.

*Booker, why aren't you taking the master bedroom? It IS for the adults.* It had a king sized bed, two dressers, two oversized closets and its own sink. She hopped up on the bed and sat down. This room was much more than she would ever need.

*You need the space more than I do.* She didn't think that was the only reason. He pulled out some sheets and tossed them on the bed and gave her a smile.

"Let's go eat and you can think on how you want furniture arranged."

As they ate she could feel Anna build the room in her mind and start to rearrange the furniture in it. She wondered what it was like for Anna when she did the same thing. She thought all the time they ate and for ten minutes after. Finally she looked to her father.

"Reeady." She told him.

"Now you're sure, because I'm not going to be doing this again."

She stopped a moment and thought before nodding her head. As her father started to move things about she figured out another reason why her father was taking a smaller room. In order to get to her room, any intruder would have to go past his first. Given what had happened so far in Rapture she couldn't find a lot of fault with the idea.

After everything had been rearranged in her to room to her liking, her father helped her make the bed. Then he got her clothes and other belongings and started to make the room more homey. As she did so he spent a few minutes in his own room.

Soon it was time for dinner. Part of her wished they could eat in the apartment but she knew it wasn't a good idea. Anna was more than happy to see and meet more people, even if she did have to wear her goggles. Dinner actually went better than she expected, though it certainly helped that Mary and the Wildhelms made a point of sitting with them.

The conversation was mostly small talk and not all that interesting to her. Anna thought it was downright boring. As they walked back to the apartment things got more interesting as her father told them about being cured.

When he finished Mr. Wildhelm had an astounded expression. "I'm surprised you're still alive Mr. Boston." he told her father "I think what you went through would have reduced most people to a pile of jell-O."

"To bad your cure won't work for anyone else." Mary lamented. "Might cut down on the number of splicers attacking us."

"Even if we had a cure, don't know how many would take it." her father told Mary.

"You think splicers want be like... that?" Mrs. Wildhelm exclaimed.

"Plasmids give people power and people love power."

"You didn't seem to have a problem." Mr. Wildhelm noted.

"Plasmids are just a weapon to me. Useful, but nothing more."

"So you don't miss 'em?" the older man asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Would have made an easier trip here, but no, not addicted to the power."

"Not many people can honestly say that." Mary told them.

"Got something lot more important to me than power." he reached down and touched her shoulder.

"Well, Mister Boston..." Mary started.

"Call me Robert."

Her father does like to be called by his first name, even if it was a fake one.

"Well, "Robert"". You have tonight and tomorrow morning to get settled in because after lunch tomorrow we're putting you to work."

They spent the rest of the night and next morning finishing getting settled in at the apartment. Her father moved some of the furniture out of his bedroom into the unused bedroom. Said that he liked thing simple. They found out from the Wildhelms that the lower floors and the other half of the building were "open", meaning that one could loot them at will.

Neither of them really felt comfortable about going into someone's home to take furniture or clothes. While they had both stolen from the dead, that had been out of necessity. This wasn't the same. Anna didn't think it was proper going into other people's homes without being invited.

After lunch her father met with Mary and the other "officials" that lead the enclave. Mrs. Wildhelm watched over her in the day care and kept Xin away from her. While they ate that evening her father told her as they expected, his "job" was get supplies from the city and bring them back.

She wasn't happy about it, but it made sense. Her father was the only one in the group that could move around Rapture in any kind of safety. It also allowed him to spend most of his time with his daughter rather than working on some project or being on guard duty. Of course some of the time they spent together was going to be teaching her. Xin had finally been made to understand that her situation, but she still was determined to make sure she was learning. So it came to be that once every week she would sit down with Xin and take a verbal test.

The expression on Xin's face was priceless when she figuring out complex mathematical equations in her head faster than Xin could when writing them down. Xin wanted to push harder to see what her "potential was" but her father stopped it.

One childhood lost was enough for him.

She did get to spend time with some of the other children, but most of them were scared of her. Thank goodness for Mrs. Wildhelm. Things would have been much worse without her.

Surprisingly fast life became a routine, almost normal in a way. Her father kept her informed and talked to her often, but it didn't change the reality she no longer had a reason to remember being Elizabeth. After several weeks she came to a decision about what she was to do. The hard part would be explaining it to her father. She decided to tell him after dinner as they walked back.

*Booker, I don't think I need to remember any more.*

Needless to say her telling him caught him by surprise. *Are you sure...*

*Yes I'm sure. I haven't been of a help to you for some time now. We're both safe and I can't act as a guide to Rapture for you. I'm worried that remembering might be harmful to A.. to me.*

*Was asking if you were sure you could just decide to forget.*

*Oh.* *I thought...*

*I did think about it. If you think it's best you don't remember Elizabeth, then it's best you don't. So, how do you plan on forgetting?*

*I can't really describe it. I best way to put it is I will be making myself not think or remember.*

*And I'm not to use the Communication Plasmid.*

*Yes.*

He looked at her as he got out the key to the apartment's door. *So when will you start?*

*No time like the present*

She could see him stop himself from responding through the Plasmid. "So Anna what do you want to do tonight?"

"Checkers!"

"Checkers it is."

Don't think, don't look, don't see, don't listen, don't hear. Just forget. This was harder that she thought it would be. She was in bed trying to sleep before she dimly realized it was working. It was like going to sleep, but while still awake. She let go of the last though and all was warm and dark.

Peace.

-Booker-

A group of splicers hung around outside Athena's Glory down near the maintenance shed so it was near a month after they arrived that he was able to of back to the office near Prosperity Way to get the guitar and everything he had left in the cache. Would have gone much earlier, but needed Anna to pick the lock and that meant waiting until there were no splicers about. He hid what he took from the cache in the old office near the Lutece "photography studio." He was able to change the lock a week later so he wouldn't have to bring his daughter out again.

The search for Tenenbaum went worse than expected. The first place he had been able to check was her apartment up in Mercury Suites. The apartment had been locked, but someone had broken through a wall to get into it. Looked like the place had been gone through at least twice already. He didn't find any sort of clue to where she was, but at least had an idea what she looked like now.

Had thought he might find some papers or something in a safe on the first floor, but it just had supplies he didn't need, so he locked it back up. Whoever had gone through the apartment had done a good job of either taking or destroying anything that might be a clue as to where Tenebaum might have gone.

If there had been anything to start with.

Did find out some about the woman herself from looking about her apartment. She smoked heavily, read a great deal, but saw little sign of a social life. Everything he didn't want for Anna. Other avenues of trying to find the woman proved even more fruitless. She apparently had no friends and the only co-worker he knew of was Suchong. The deadest end of all.

Anna adapted well enough to their new life in Athena's Glory and her being a Little Sister didn't bother her most of the time. Her problem with not being able to read bothered her more now, more than she let on. He wasn't sure why that was though. Something else was bothering her as well, but she didn't want to tell him what it was. Trying to force it would just make it worse. Would have to wait until she was ready.

A couple people did complain about Anna being a Little Sister and Ernst was fool enough to suggest they turn her over to Ryan and do it within earshot. He decided to give Ernst a very detailed description of what he would do to them that threatened his daughter. That ended that kind talk for good.

After a particularly long day out in Rapture he came back to find Anna sitting in a corner of the day care by herself while some of the other younger children played on the other side of the room. He sat down next to her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nobody wants to play with me."

AS he had expected. "No one will play with you?"

"Jeremiah and Ted did, but then they stopped."

"Did they say why?"

"Ted said him mother didn't want him to play with me anymore." Not unexpected. Ted's mother, Sheila, had been one to complain about Anna being a Little Sister. He stepped on his anger. As much as he would like to call the woman out on what she did, he knew a threat about this would only make matters worse.

"That wasn't a nice thing to do, nor the right thing to do."

"I know." she said sadly.

"Has Mrs. Wildhelm tried to do anything?"

"Yeah, she's tried to get some of the boys to play with me, but they don't want to. Call me a sister, like it was something bad."

"You're not bad." Had to do something to cheer her up a little. "I know it's hard for you. But when you find someone to play with, you can play with them all day."

She made a weak smile. "Really?"

"Yes, really. Now let's get home."

Anna never mentioned it again, but he kept an eye to make sure she didn't get that sad again. He talked to Mrs. Wildhelm about what was happening, but she had already run out of ideas on getting the boys to play with Anna. It was just something they would have to deal with until she was cured.

In addition to locating supplies for Athena's Glory, he also did a few jobs for Perreault. Usually it was just picking up or delivering something too large to be sent by the Pneumos. These trips allowed him to look around Rapture as well as set up contacts with a few other enclaves. Tenenbaum had to leave some kind of trace someplace and the best place he thought to pick it up would be from an enclave. She needed to get supplies from someone. Doing jobs for Perreault also got "credit" with the trader to get supplies.

Took a little while to realize it, but he was back to doing the much same jobs he had done back in New York. Wasn't planning on putting "DeWitt Investigations" on his door anytime soon though. Rather surprisingly he didn't encounter Lutece again. Maybe traveling around Rapture by himself wasn't interesting enough for them. Or maybe there were too many or not enough variables to make a good experiment. Didn't really care why, but having them out of his hair was a good thing.

Months passed. It was near the end of the July and he and Anna had just arrived back at the apartment after dinner.

"So what book do you want me to read tonight?" he asked his daughter as he opened the door.

As she thought about it she took off her goggles. The unnatural color of her eyes still bothered people. But before she could make a decision the shortwave radio came alive. There was a lot of static before it cleared up enough for him to understand anything.

+_Help! We ****** by splicers! Se*****lp! Jose is d**** Need *******_\+ Then the signal cut off. It sounded like a major attack.

"Anna! Someone attacking down below. Get things ready." Her eyes widened a little and nodded her head before she headed back to get the bags they kept ready in case they had to flee Athena's Glory.

He ran to the armory nearly colliding with two people as he did so. He kept his pistol and the Grabber with him at all times, but left his other weapons in the armor to remove temptation from Anna's grasp. He didn't take the elevator, but ran down the stairs. It was a lot of stairs, but he was using the Speed Demon Gear. While the elevators might be faster, they could easily be turned into a deathtrap. On the radio Sam was trying to get information and organize a response.

As he got close to the mid level elevator lobby he heard gunfire. There was normally only a single guard here along with a machine gun turret. He slammed into the door and out into the lobby area beyond. The turret had been destroyed and two dead splicers lay in front of it. Mohamad was crouched behind a couch firing a shotgun at the splicers down the corridor. Mohamad ducked as bullets and a lightning bolt flew over his head. Behind him a black and red cloud started to form.

Booker brought up the machine gun and concentrated on where he thought the Houdini's head would be when he finished teleporting in. If he missed, the splicer would certainly wound Mohamad badly, if not kill him.

NOW! He fired a burst just as the Houdini became solid. The headless body fell to the floor and he turned his attention down the corridor. Mohamad hadn't even notice the Houdini. He fired a burst at a Leadhead splicer when he saw a group splicers running down the corridor at them.

Time for more extreme measures.

He got out a Proximity Mine and threw it ahead of the running splicers to slow them down. When he took cover with Mohamad behind the couch the man nearly jumped out of his skin. The man said something in a language he didn't understand, but the tone was enough that he got the hint. They both turned their attention back down the corridor.

The running splicers either didn't see the Mine or didn't know what it was. The explosion killed two and injured at least two others. He and Mohamad continued firing pinning the remaining splicers down as a message came over the shortwave. It was Sam.

+_People on the way down. Just hold out until we get there!_+

He managed to kill another of the attackers just as the elevator door opened allowing Sam and reinforcements from above to enter the fight. He made sure to expose himself to divert fire from the rest as they formed up. Doing so he took enough hits to break his Shield, but fortunately not much more. In a few minutes the fighting in the corridor was over and the attacking splicers where dead. Quickly they moved on to retake the elevators from the lower floors.

There was only a single Thugish Splicer at elevators and she was desperately trying to get the elevator door to open. When she saw him she just charged at them, only to be quickly cut down by gunfire from Mohamad and Sam.

Sam went to get into the elevator. "No, I'll go by myself." he told him.

Sam turned to look at him. "Yeah, probably the smart thing." he admitted.

Arnie didn't like that. "Why are we waiting! I want to kill those sons of bitches!" When he took a step towards the elevators Sam stopped him.

"Let Boston do his job."

"What's he going to do?" Arnie yelled and thrust out his arm at him.

Some of people here still didn't know him well or what he could do. Probably his fault since other than the Wildhelms, he tended to stay with those that had been down in Fontaine's.

"I do know what Boston can do, so let him do it!" Sam yelled back at Arnie before turning back. "Get going Boston."

Didn't like taking the elevator, but there were no stairs from this floor that ran down. As the elevator door closed he got out the Chemical Thrower and make sure napalm was loaded. In his travels to find supplies and trying to get a lead on Tenenbaum, he had found several Power to the People Machines to upgrade it.

He changed to the Chameleon Gear and stood to one side of the elevator car. The Gear wouldn't hide the Thrower, but seeing only the Thrower and no one holding it should make any splicers hesitate. The elevator doors opened and nothing happened. He couldn't see any splicers from where he stood against the wall. Didn't sound like there were many splicers nearby.

A man's voice called out "Elevators here!"

Now was his chance. He quickly stepped out of the elevator and saw there were only three splicers. Two of the splicers were close by the elevators and he immediately coated them in flames. One vanished in a cloud of black and red smoke while the other thrashed around a moment before falling to the floor.

The last splicer hit him with a lightning bolt and followed it up with bees. She was out of range of the Thrower so he switched to the machine gun. Two good bursts was all it to put the EVE Addict down.

As he finished off the EVE Addict, the still burning Houdini appeared at the top of the stairs heading down and threw three fireballs at him before vanishing again. Managed to avoid the fireballs, but wasn't able to get a shot off.

He ran to the top of the stairs. The Houdini appeared at the bottom of the stairs running away and still on fire. One good burst was enough to finish him. He rushed to check the two that had been on guard duty when the splicers attacked. Both were dead.

He brought out the radio. "This is Boston. It's clear down here."

+_Anyone still alive_?+ Sam asked.

"No. We need to check the lower levels, some of the splicers might have gotten the elevators off on a lower floor."

+_Shit. Ok, I'll leave some people here and start clearing the floors. Call if you need help._+

"Will do."

It took over four hours for the lower floors to be cleared out of the five splicers there and he killed six others that wandered down from Olympus Heights. The ones searching didn't lose anyone, but half were wounded and they found the bodies of Matthew and Kelly. Seems they had been looking through the lower floors when the attack came. They had lost four people in this attack.

Anna had been waiting and was happy when he got back to the room. She fell asleep in a chair two minutes after he walked through the door. He gently picked her up and tucked her into bed. He needed to get to sleep himself. There was going to be a meeting of the enclave's leaders early in the morning and he was going to be there.

They had six people guarding the mid level elevator lobby. Sam had decided that trying to hold the lower floors was a bad idea right now and he had to agree. The loss of four people and four turrets had hurt the enclave's defenses badly.

Unless something was done and soon, the splicers would overrun Athena's Glory.

End Chapter 71


	72. Chapter 72

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 72

-Booker-

Directly after breakfast the meeting on what to do started. Mary, Sam, Wildhelm and a few others where there. Mary started off the meeting informally.

"What the hell can we do to stop the splicers?"

He actually had an idea, but decided to wait and see if someone had a better one. Hoped someone did.

Beatrice, one of people that had originally lived in Athena's Glory had an immediate answer. "We move. We go find someplace else to hide. Maybe with that Perreault guy."

Sam shook his head. "We try to leave, the splicers would be all over us."

Beatrice turned and jabbed at finger at him. "He can protect us as we leave! You don't have any problems out there, right Boston?"

"I can only protect one or two people at a time. And we don't know if Perreault has room or if he'll take us." he told her.

"What about cutting off the lower floors?" Wildhelm asked. He really didn't seem to think it was a good idea, but thought it should be voiced.

"The Jet Postal's on the third floor. We just try to hide up on the upper floors, we won't last long." Mary told him. "Anything else?" There was silence for nearly a minute before he spoke.

"I say we block the tram tunnel." he told them.

"What good would that do?" Beatrice asked.

"Them that attacked yesterday were from Olympus Heights. We close off the tram tunnel, just leaves the tunnel open from the south. Hasn't been many splicers from there so far."

"There were those splicers in the tram car couple of days ago." Sam countered.

"They were taking a joy ride and I don't even think they noticed we were here." Mary told him. "Robert, you really think you can block the tunnel?"

Paul broke in. "Are you crazy? You can't just blow up a tram tunnel!"

"Not blowing up the tunnel, just blocking it."

"I don't..." Paul started.

"Let the man finish." Wildhelm told Paul. Paul quieted down but didn't look happy about it.

"Would need to collapse the tram tunnel entrance to do any good." It would have been so much easier if the fools that designed Rapture had put watertight doors on the tram tunnels in case one of them flooded.

Wildhelm looked thoughtful for a moment. "I know just who to talk to, Marc Enhrich he's some kind of construction guy."

Mary spent a couple moments thinking. "Ok, you two go talk to Mr. Enhrich. I'll give Perreault a call. In the meantime try and think of something else. Let's get going."

Wildhelm walked out with him and together they found Enhrich. Enhrich was in his mid- 50's, spoke with a slight German accent and had the weathered look of someone who had spent a lot of time outdoors in his youth. He seemed a bit puzzled when they asked about collapsing the entrance.

"Destroy the entrance? Why not close the flood gate?"

"Flood gate?" he asked and glanced over at Wildhelm who seemed as puzzled as he was. "Don't remember seeing any gates."

"Sorry, forget most people don't know about them. What do you think would happen if a tram tunnel collapsed?"

"A lot of buildings would flood." Wildhelm said.

Enhrich smiled. "Right, not a very good way run a city is it? Most people never even think about things like that. Since I'm an old construction engineer, I got to wondering about it."

"So where are these flood gates?" he asked the man.

"Just inside the entrances to the buildings. Buried under the floor. They're supposed to push up if there's flooding using some kind of hydraulic pump."

'Push up through the floor?' Not sure if he liked the sound of that.

"You know how to work one of these gates?" Wildhelm asked.

Enhrich chuckled slightly. "No, I just wanted to know they were there. Sorry can't be much more help."

"No, you've been a big help."

Wildhelm shook Enhrich's hand "Thanks alot Marc. If you remember anything else, please let me now."

"Glad to be of help Der."

Wildhelm seemed pleased. "All we have to do shut that flood gate and we don't have to worry about splicers from the Heights anymore."

"Just have to figure out how to close it now."

"We just have to…" Wildhelm's voice trailed off.

"Just have to find controls for something we didn't even know about five minutes ago."

"Who would have control of something like that?"

"Ryan certainly has them, but don't think he's going to be willing to help."

Wildhelm glanced at him. "Why would Ryan have controls for these flood gates?"

"Ryan wants, has to control everything in Rapture."

"Didn't know they came up with a Plasmid that let people read minds." Wildhelm told him jokingly.

"Know his type all too well. Let's get back with Mary."

They found Mary in what she jokingly called her office, a small shop near the restaurant that she had cleaned out. After they told her what they found out she leaned back against the wall to think a moment.

She looked exhausted.

"Looks like this flood gate is the only option we have. Perreault said he had didn't have much room and didn't know of anyone who did. Unless you think you can find us someplace Robert."

He thought for a moment. "Don't think so. Finding a place to hole up isn't easy and the good spots are taken.

Mary rubbed her face. "So any idea on how to close this flood gate?"

Wildhelm shook his head.

"Just great."

"Anybody here work in building maintenance or in building the city?" he asked. "One of them might know something."

"No." Mary told him sadly. "Joined Atlas or became splicers. Most did both."

"Almost lunch time, we can ask around a little then just in case." Wildhelm told her. "Someone might know something."

They ate lunch with Anna. The mood was somber from the losses yesterday and she made an effort to keep quiet. They asked around, but no one knew anything about the flood gates. Out of sight out of mind.

He, Anna and Wildhelm stayed in the restaurant after the meal was done to try and figure out how they get the flood gate to work. They were joined by William and Lisa who were taking a long lunch break before they went back to building the second turret to replace them that had been destroyed. He noticed that the pair sat very close together. They told him that they only had enough parts to finish the turret they were working on. He was going to have to go scavenging soon. Very soon.

They spent some time tossing ideas around, but didn't come up with much of anything. There had to be a way to manually activate the gate, but they had no idea how. William thought the manual controls would be on one of the sub levels of the building were the heating, sewage and electrical systems were.

That was when he noticed what Anna was doing. She was sitting in his lap pouring water from one glass to another then looking closely at one she had just poured the water into. Some kind of experiment, but he didn't have any idea what it could be.

Water.

He turned to the small group. "The gate would have to have some kind of system to close automatically if the tunnel flooded, right?"

William thought a moment before responding. "Yeah. If a tunnel flooded, the gate would have to close by itself. You couldn't wait for people to... I get it. We fool the system into thinking the tunnels flooded."

"Could we just flood the tunnel for real?" Lisa asked.

Wildhelm answered. "Tunnels are tough, breaking one wouldn't be easy."

"Might have a lot of water in here before the gate closed." he added.

William looked at his watch and stood up. "We need to get back to work."

"Thanks for the help." "Thanks" "By, By!" Anna waved at the two as they walked away.

After the pair were gone, Wildhelm leaned back in his chair. "So what do we do now?"

He picked up his daughter off his lap and gently put her on the floor. She looked up at him with big eyes and a small pout. "Already?"

"Yes, already." he told her and turned to Wildhelm. "First we go see your wife, then I'm going downstairs to look for whatever closes the flood gate."

"You know what you're looking for?"

"Not the slightest. Figure I'll know it when I see it."

"Hope you do."

They walked to the two apartments that had been converted into the day care center. There were only five other children there at the moment, all ages eight to ten. Mrs. Wildhelm smiled when she saw them.

"About time you got back. I was thinking you had decided to take in a show at Fort Frolic." she teased. He glanced at his daughter at the mention of the Fort and as he expected, a brief look of disgust crossed her face.

"Think my idea of entertainment is a bit different from Cohen's." he told her. He got down on one knee to give Anna a hug and told her to be good. She pretended to think about it a moment before saying she would.

He went back to their home picked up his mask and what he called his "splicer disguise." It was a battered businessman's suit with badly sewn on patches and blood stains. There was padding on the right shoulder and upper left leg. The padding made him look as if he had some kind of growths on him like many of the splicers had. Some dirt on his face with a bloody bandage on his left hand and he looked to be a splicer. Then it was to the armory for his weapons and downstairs to the mid-level elevator lobby.

When he got there Sam was on duty with five other people. Margo had a fresh bandage on her right arm.

"Any problems?"

"Could be a better." Sam told him. "Had three of 'em come up here this morning. Have the elevator doors covered with those Crossbow Trap Bolts you brought up a couple weeks ago."

"What happened to Margo?"

"Last bastard could teleport. Thank God they can only go places they can see. So, going downstairs?"

"Trying to figure a way to close off the tunnel to the north."

"Think you can do it?"

"Going to try."

"Be careful around the Trap Bolts and see if you can get some more, don't have many left."

"I'll take a run up to the ammo machine in Central Square Bistro and see if they have any."

After very carefully picking his way through the wires of the Trap Bolts he took the elevator down. He knew a single Trap Bolt couldn't get through his Shield, but it still didn't feel very good.

Once down in the tram station he spent a few minutes looking around and avoiding the four or five splicers drifting around. He didn't see anything obvious. Needed time to think. Can do it while getting the Trap Bolts.

Whatever closed the flood gate had to be simple and reliable, but also small.

"Another one! Another one!" came a scream from behind him.

He turned just in time to get hit a bomb from Nitro Splicer. His Shield nearly broke and he was forced to dodge as the splicer threw another bomb.

"Another amateur! You got nothing on me!"

He had fully researched all they types of splicers in Rapture, but even with that, Nitro Splicers could be hard to put down. A bolt of lightning from the Grabber hit the splicer and he opened fire with the machine gun. Even shocked, it took three good bursts to put the splicer down. Just after he died, a powerful explosion consumed the body.

Hadn't really wanted to search the splicer's corpse that much anyway.

He looked around to check the other two nearby splicers, but they had ignored the fight. Splicers had gotten more unstable as time passed and were more likely to attack for no obvious reason. He had actually been a little surprised that a large enough group had formed to assault Athena's Glory. He continued up to the Central Square Bistro and the El Ammo Bandito there.

The machine didn't have any Trap Bolts, but there were some 45. anti-personnel rounds and Explosive Buck. Damn. If they got too low on the Trap Bolts he would need to get to the U-Invent up in Mercury Suites as the one in Athena's Glory didn't have the formula. Going up there usually involved a couple fights. Wonder if he could move a U-Invent by himself?

Later. Needed to figure out where the trigger for the flood gate was.

He got back to the tram station without any problems and started to puzzle things out. Had to be some kind of pressure gauge or float to set cause the gate to close. Wouldn't be on the floor, too easy to damage or set off by accidentally. That meant something built in a walls or something like a statue.

He spent an hour searching the tram station, but found nothing. Had a Leadhead attack him and when he killed that splicer, a Houdini started throwing fireballs at him. That one was smart enough to run away after he had been hurt bad enough though.

Where could the trigger be?

What if the trigger wasn't in Athena's Glory, but outside in the tunnel? That made some sense. If the tunnel flooded one would want the trigger for a flood gate near as you could to the source of the water. Not in the tunnel though. Something damaged the tunnel might damage the trigger. On the walls of the building on either side of the tunnel then.

As he started for the tram tunnel noticed a splicer heading for the elevators. He got behind some cover so that the other splicers wandering around couldn't see him and put a bullet from the autopistol into the back of the splicers head. The Sound of Silence Gear kept the sound of the shot from being heard and the splicers didn't notice when the dead body hit the floor. One less splicer to for them upstairs to deal with.

He started looking around on the walls to the right of the entrance. There were decorations that looked like columns there, if a column was missing its bottom half. But they had lights on them so they were wired and likely hollow. He started looking at them and on the one farthest away from the entrance he found a grate on the underside about chest height.

He bent down and got out his flashlight and shown it though the grate. What was inside wasn't very big, but it had a pressure gage on the side. Seemed simple enough. When the pressure got high enough, it closed a circuit. A jolt from the Grabber should be enough to trigger it.

As he stood up and he wondered how fast Elizabeth would have found it. Likely a lot faster than he had. Best to not think about it. Something bothered him though, seemed like there should be more to it. Would only take a minute to look on the other side. On the left side he found another pressure gage. That would mean both needed to be set off at the same time. Made it a little harder, but not a big problem.

The big problem was that when the flood gate closed, he would be on the wrong side of it. He looked at the two foot tunnels that connected Athena's Glory to Central Square. No hope there. They had sealed those up months ago to keep splicers out. Meant he would have to go through Apollo Square and work his way around to the south tunnel entrance. He liked going through the Square less than he liked going to Mercury Suites.

He headed back into Athena's Glory and to the elevators. He was going to talk to Mary first before he closed that flood gate and he needed to tell Anna he was going to be late. First Mary.

When the elevator doors opened he found a dead body, just beyond it was a second one. Both killed by Trap Bolts and one still smoked slightly. He carefully stepped out of the elevator with his Machine Gun in hand just to be on the safe side.

He called out "Hey it's…" and was cut off by gunfire. He had to jump back into the elevator to avoid being hit.

"Stop shooting damn it! That's Boston!" Sam yelled and the gunfire stopped.

"Is it safe?" he called to Sam.

"Yeah, come on out." He sounded disgusted.

He walked up to them that were guarding the lobby, passing two more bodies as he did. Brian and Margo avoided looking at him.

"Sorry about that, you ok?"

"Fine, they missed."

"Good. You find anything?"

"Think I did, need to talk to Mary first."

He headed to the elevators that would take him the rest of the way up. "Any Trap Bolts?" Jorge asked. He just shook his head.

Mary was still in her office and she was talking to her brother at the moment. She saw him and motioned him to walk over.

"Did you find anything? Did you close us off? " she asked caught between hope and disappointment.

"Thought I should talk to you before I did anything. When that gate goes up it's going to be a mess."

"So you wanted us to be ready in case closing the flood gate caused more problems."

"Yeah. And I'm going to be on the other side."

"Why?"

"Trigger's in the tunnel. I can make my way back, but it's going to take awhile. Need to tell Anna I'm going to be late for supper."

"Make sure you're just late. How long do you think it will take before you close the flood gates?"

"Half hour, maybe a little longer."

"That'll be enough time to get ready. Give me a call before you do it just to be sure. And say hello to your daughter for me."

Once in the Wildhelm's day care he sat down to talk to Anna. He explained that what he was doing in general terms and why he wouldn't be there for dinner.

"You're going to be late for dinner?" she asked with half a pout.

"Yes, but what I have to do is important."

"I know. You keep people safe."

"I keep you safe." He reached out and brushed the tip of her nose with his finger. She giggled a little. "I'll be back as soon as I can." he told her as he stood up.

"I know." she said with a smile.

Soon he was back outside of Athena's Glory, prying the grate off the underside of the decoration to get the trigger device. He'd already put down a Jockey who started throwing lightning bolts at him. Hadn't been a hard fight though. The splicer was having trouble aiming because of nerve damage. Then while he worked on taking off the second grate a Thugish Splicer had attacked him. Another interruption.

Once both grates where off he stood a looked around. Going to have to do this fast while there weren't any splicers around. Time to let Mary know.

"This is Robert. Ready to go."

It took a minute before she answered. +_Ok, Robert. We're as set as we'll ever be. Good Luck._+

Wish he didn't have a feeling he might need it. He let loose a lightning bolt into the trigger on the right and then sprinted for the other side using the Speed Demon Gear. He jammed the Grabber into the hole made by removing the grate and fired off another bolt of lightning. Instantly there was a deep rumble and in the blink of an eye huge pieces of concrete were thrown up like a child's wooden blocks.

He raised the Grabber and jumped to the steel beam above. As his feet left the ground he felt something hit the back of his boot then he was safely hooked onto the beam. He looked down into a thick cloud of dust, but even through the dust he could see dim shaped slabs of concrete tossed up by the flood gate.

Where he had stood a moment before was buried beneath tons of rubble.

He dismounted from the beam as far from the spreading cloud of dust as he could manage and ran up towards Central Square. He's learned the hard way that breathing such was not good for ones lungs. At the shuttered newsstand he turned and looked back. Even if the flood gate hadn't closed all the rubble would sure to be enough to keep most splicers away.

Mary's voice cam over the radio. +_Hey Robert. You ok? Did it work? Everything up here shook._+

"Yeah, it worked. See everyone in a few hours."

He needed to get going quickly. Ryan would certainly be wondering what happened and splicers would start showing up soon. Didn't want to be around for either to find.

Had a long walk ahead of him.

…

Closing the flood gate brought a measure of peace to Athena's Glory and things returned to what passed as normal. Anna slowly got better at playing the guitar and grew a little. Glad he had gotten clothes that were a little large. She still had trouble with some of the boys, but a few would play with her now. Some of the parents still had problems, but most slowly accepted her or at least stopped complaining to her being there. Except one, Ted's mother, Sheila. She had lived at Athena's Glory before the war and wouldn't let anyone forget it. Her son was a good kid though.

He still went out into Rapture for supplies and credit with Perreault. He wasn't able to find a trace of Tenenbaum despite all the effort. If he wasn't sure she was still alive he might have believed she was dead. Splicers became worse in some ways as time went on, more deformed, more aggressive and more insane. At the same time the splicers became less powerful. The splicer's powers faded without fresh ADAM to maintain them. He saw fewer and fewer EVE Addicts, Jockeys and Bruisers. Houdini and Spider Splicers seemed common enough though. Them that lost their powers turned to using weapons. First guns and later clubs as the nerve damage got progressively worse.

It was early November and he was searching through the remains of a jewelry store when William called on the radio.

+_Robert, you need to get back here._\+ He sounded strange, not scared, but close to it.

He started for the door. "What's happening?"

It took nearly half a minute before William responded. +_Your.. um, she's missing._+

It felt like a piece of cold iron had been shoved into his heart.

"What happened!"

+_There was a problem with Sheila, an argument or something. She didn't leave the building. We… just can't find her._+

"I'll be back as soon as I can. Call me if you learn anything." He started running back towards Athena's Glory.

+_I will._+

God Dammit! What could have… Calm down. Calm down. 'She's safe, she can't get out of the building.' he told himself as he ran back and kept repeating it as he ran. He used the Speed Demon Gear to run past most of the splicers he saw. One Houdini kept teleporting ahead of him to attack though. After getting hit by the third fireball he had enough. He shocked the splicer and then removed most of his head with the shotgun.

Didn't have TIME for this!

Took him nearly twenty minutes to get back. Salazar was on duty when he ran in. He made the mistake of getting in an argument in a bar about how Ryan shouldn't have taken control of Fontaine Futuristics and ended up down in the Department store for it.

"Mary said to go up to the day care center." The man told him in a deep voice as he stepped aside to let Booker pass.

"Thanks." Was all he could say.

Two elevator rides and short run later he was at the daycare. There were people outside the door waiting for him. Mary, Wildhelm, Sam, Xin and Lisa. All looked worried.

"Did you find her?"

"No, we haven't. Half the people here are looking for her."

Calm down. "Tell me what happened."

Wildhelm answered. "Ted and Anna were playing. Carl and Terry got into a fight over some crayons and my wife was busy taking care of it. When she turned around Sheila was there and she started yelling at Anna. She ran off after that."

"What did Sheila tell my daughter?" Wildhelm and the rest looked a little uncomfortable.

"I told the little monster to get away from my son!" came a woman's voice from the door of the day care.

He quickly turned to find Sheila Kramer standing there, looking very pleased with herself. Her son Ted was behind her looking sad and ashamed.

He controlled his anger. He needed information and best to get information straight for the source.

"Did she say anything back?"

Sheila smiled cruelly. "Yeah, the little monster said she was going to find someone else to play with. Good riddance to that thing."

The next instant he grabbed her fancy blouse at the neck and was his face was just inches from hers. "If anything happens to Anna, it will be your head." He kept his voice low and her eyes grew wide with fear.

"Boston!", "Robert, let her go!", "Moma!" "Don't!"

He pushed the woman away with a disgusted sound and walked away.

'Someone else to play with. Who else would there be to play with? What did Anna mean?'

"You can't do that to ME!" Sheila screamed behind him. And he saw the Mary and the others expressions turn from worried to surprise.

"Look out!" Lisa yelled as a shot rang out.

Something hit him in the back.

The woman continued screaming. "I'm better than you!" And as he turned she fired again. This time he had his Shield up. Mary and Sam were ordering Sheila to drop the gun and were drawing their own weapons. He wanted to pull out the autopistol and put a bullet in her. Hard not to. She fired again, but it wasn't near enough to break his Shield. Instead he used the Grabber and smashed the pistol from the woman's hand.

She screamed in pain and dropped to her knees. She was lucky that he remembered to disable the Electric Eel Gear before he hit her.

Mary yelled "Get some First Aid Kits! Robert how bad is it?"

"Don't worry about me." he told her. Had been hit in the lower back, but the Gear was already healing him. Shortly the slug would be pushed out of the wound and by tomorrow one wouldn't even find a trace of a scar.

Ted was at his mother's side trying to comfort her as Sam went and picked up her pistol. It had been close. Ted had almost become an orphan. Part of him still wanted to finish the job, but that wasn't fair to the boy. He deserved a better parent that the one he had, but it would be wrong to take his mother from him.

"Boston you're bleeding." Lisa told him.

"Said I'll be fine." he responded more harshly than he intended.

Wound wasn't important. Anna couldn't leave the building. She couldn't have gotten far. Mrs. Wildhelm had come out and started to tend to Sheila's broken hand. She didn't look happy about helping the injured woman, but did so anyway. Must have heard it all. Sam stood off to the side watching closely to make sure she didn't cause any more trouble.

Anna wouldn't have gone and hid. Not from Sheila. She must have gone back to the apartment. He walked over to Mary. "I'm going do to my apartment."

"She's not there. Marty was doing work near the elevators and didn't see her go by. She didn't leave this floor."

"Checked the locked rooms?"

"They've been checking them." He winced slightly. Anna had gotten bored in the daycare one day and had slipped out to start practicing picking locks. "We've check everything twice."

Didn't feel right. His gut was telling him he had missed something. What was it? How could Anna have left the floor? He started looking around and that's when he spotted it at the far end of the corridor.

A Little Sister Vent.

He slowly walked toward it. "Anna? Anna are you in there? Come on out."

As he got closer, he got out his flashlight and shined it at the vent. "Anna?" he called more loudly. Mary and Lisa came up beside him.

"Stay here." he told them. They looked a little puzzled, but didn't follow him. Little Sisters didn't come to the upper floors of Athena's Glory, no bodies to harvest. But there were vents all over the building. Maybe he was wrong and she didn't use it.

He got close to the vent and there it was. A clear hand print in the dust.

Anna had climbed into the vent and he had no idea how to find her.

End Chapter 72


	73. Chapter 73

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 73

Anna/Elizabeth

Something.

Just a small feeling that grew. Only now did she realize that the small feeling had always been there.

It was like waking up from being asleep. She… remembered. She didn't WANT to remember. She could see. Rapture, she was still in Rapture. Still a Little Sister.

It hadn't worked. She had tried to forget, but it hadn't worked. She had stopped thinking about being Elizabeth, but she hadn't totally forgotten. She had decided to remember, to hold on to those memories. Now she was thinking of them again. Why?

"Anna, are you alright?" a girl's voice asked. She turned towards the voice. A Little Sister with dark skin and hair in a red dress. There were pipes all around, grates, four Little Sister Vents, water, some bunk beds, a table or two, chairs, a few toys, some kind of office. It looked much like the area under the tram tunnel she and her father had passed through just before they got to Athena's Glory. Didn't smell like it though, the stench of cigarettes hung in the air. Something about the place was familiar though.

"I'm ok, Bess." she told the other Little Sister. "Just remembered something."

There was something on the floor under her feet. A chalk drawing. Hopscotch? She had been playing hopscotch?

What was going on here? Where was her father? *Booker. Booker!* Nothing. He must be out of range.

"I have to go." she told Bess.

Another Little Sister spoke. "Don't you want to wait for Momma Tenenbaum?"

Tenenbaum?! She was here? Did her father find her? Where was he? Did something happen to him?

"I have to go back to my daddy." She told the second Little Sister.

"You have a daddy?" Bess asked slightly in awe.

"My daddy is big and strong, he protects me." she said proudly.

"Can we meet him?" the other Little Sister asked. "I think I had a daddy, maybe he's my daddy too!" It seems that Tanenbaum had been able to remove some of the conditioning, but not all of it.

"I have to go." she said and walked towards one of the four Little Sister Vents. This was one of the safe areas created for the Little Sisters. She heard another Little Sister talking, but couldn't make out what she said.

Bess asked "Why don't you stay a little longer and play?"

"Have to tell daddy about Doctor Tenenbaum. Important."

Just as she feared. He father didn't know where she was or that Tenenbaum was here. She was going to be grounded until she was old enough to go to college when she got back.

"Your daddy knows Momma Tenebaum?"

She was at the foot of the Vent now. "No, wants to talk to her, very important."

She jumped and grabbed the bottom of the Vent and pulled herself up easily. "By." Goodbye." Come back soon."

She certainly would be back.

She spent some time crawling through the Vent system. She could feel Anna thinking about how to get where she wanted to go. At the same time she memorized and plotted out her path. She was careful not to think hard when Anna was doing anything difficult. She did NOT want to get lost in here. She spent a great deal of time climbing upward and several times could see an exit, but just kept going past it.

How did Anna find the Little Sisters in the first place? Once she thought about it the answer came to her easily enough. She could smell the ADAM. There were at least three Little Sisters down there and she could smell the fresh ADAM a long distance away.

How much time had passed? Was she still in Athena's Glory?

She came to another Vent, but this time she didn't go past it. She stuck her head out of the vent and looked around. Nobody there. This was Athena's Glory thank goodness, not far from the day care. She climbed down to the floor, turned around and bumped into something large that hadn't been there a moment before. She backed up against the Vent and looked up.

"Uh oh."

It was her father. He was standing there with his arms crossed and he had a most displeased expression on his face.

She wasn't going to be grounded until college, it was going to be for the rest of her life.

"Where have you been young lady." His voice was controlled, but expectant. As if the possibility that she wouldn't answer didn't exist.

"Um, I was…" her voice trailed off.

"Yes?" he asked patiently.

"I just wanted to have someone to play with. That mean old lady yelled, called me names."

"Did you find anyone to play with?" he still kept his voice level and she thought she knew why. He was very angry with what she had done, but also very relived she was back safe and sound.

"Yeah I did!" she told him with a smile. The smile quickly faded when his expression didn't change.

"Who was it?"

"Four girls like me." He just raised an eyebrow slightly at that. "They know Doctor Tenenbaum."

His expression didn't change much. "We can talk about that later. Do you know how much trouble you caused by leaving like that? How much danger you put yourself in?"

She looked down a little. "I didn't want to cause any trouble, knew I was safe."

"We didn't know you were safe. Half of the people up here were looking for you. Whole place was in an uproar."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it."

Her father's face softened some and he dropped his hands down to his sides. "I know you didn't and I'm glad you're safe." He got down on one knee and put his hand on her head to muss up her hair a little. "But that doesn't change what you did." He stood back up.

"What's going to happen?"

"First of all you and I have some apologies to make."

"But you didn't do anything wrong!"

"You're my responsibility. Best to see Mary first. You can tell me what happened while we walk. Start at the beginning."

"I was playing marbles with Ted and his mother came up." She made a face. "She grabbed him by the ear and yelled at him. Then she started calling me names! Said I was am monster. "

She paused a few moments.

"I.. got mad and ran out. It was the first time in a long time Ted played with me. I just wanted to have a little fun." "I called her a mean old lady. Do we hafta apologies to her too?"

"No, she should give you an apology, but them like her don't make apologies."

"Ted's mom isn't nice."

"No, she isn't. So what did you do after you left the day care?"

"I wanted to play. I knew there were other girls close, so I found them."

"Where are they?"

"Not far." That was an understatement. The Little Sister's safe area was just outside Athena's Glory. They were at the elevator now. She had the impulse to tell Booker about where Tenenbaum was, but she knew that he was going to make the apologies, pay his debt as it were, before he went looking for the doctor. She imagined a few people were not happy with her disappearing and saying "I'm sorry." might prevent some future problems.

"We can figure out where later. So what happened when you found the other girls?"

"We played hopscotch, lots of hopscotch."

"How many other girls were there?"

"Bess, Veronica, Lyla and Keiko."

"Tenenbaum wasn't there?"

"No, Bess said that Doctor Tenebaum was working on something important and would be back soon."

"That's when you came back?" She nodded. "Guess finding Tenenbaum is a bright spot in all this. He looked at her. "The girls had yellow eyes, right?" She nodded. "No cure yet, need to talk to her anyway."

They were in front of Mary's office and could here Mary and Sam talking inside. Her father walked in after knocking. They both looked at him then at her.

"Well Anna, nice to see you're back safe and sound." Mary told her. She didn't seem angry, just relived. Sam relaxed a little.

"Would like to thank you for looking for my daughter and apologies for what happened. She shouldn't have left like that."

It was her turn now. "I'm sorry that I caused a problem and it won't happen again."

Mary and Sam got up from the table and walked over. Mary's expression became sterner. "I certainly hope that it doesn't Anna." Her expression softened again. "So, where did you go?"

She looked down. "Uh, playing."

"Playing?"

"She found some other Little Sisters." Her father told her.

"Other ones? Where?" Sam asked.

"Don't know yet, don't think they are close enough to cause us trouble. Any decision on what to do with Sheila yet?"

Mary looked a little troubled. "Not yet. Thinking of a trial of some kind, even if just to decide on how to punish her."

Sheila? Ted's mother. What did she do?

"Only two things we can do. Lock her up or killer her." Sam told her.

"Rather not make the boy an orphan." Her father told them.

Sam seemed puzzled by what her father said. "She tried to kill you, shot you in the back."

What? That bitch shot her father?

"The one that would really suffer would Ted. Think he's been through enough."

"We'll work it out." Mary told them.

"The two of us still have more apologies to make. Time to go Anna."

They spent the next hour apologizing to people. Most were not to overly upset and their apologies were accepted. A few even expressed some sympathy for her and others expressed a dislike for Sheila. Ted's mother had won few friends here. How long had she been asleep? When they finished they started back to the apartment and her father laid out her punishment.

"No Pep Bars for the rest of the month and you're going to be grounded."

Anna sadly accepted it. Yes, sir."

Seems like a good time to let him know. *That was very well done Booker.*

Her father stumbled slightly in surprise and it took him a moment to respond.*Elizabeth? I thought…*

*It seems I wasn't ready to forget yet.*

*What was it like.*

*Closest thing I can tell you would be that it was like being asleep.*

He took a moment to think it over. *Why now?*

*Tenenbaum. When I heard Bess, one of the Little Sisters talk about her, that's when I woke up.*

"Anna. Do you remember where the other Little Sisters are?"

"Yes. Can I go see them again?" *The Little Sisters are in a safe area close by.*

*Anna has to tell me where they are.* "Not right now and not unless I tell you that you can go. So how can I to find them?"

He must think the Luteces must still be watching and he likely wasn't wrong.

She thought hard a short time, recalling her trip through the vent system, rebuilding it in her mind. "Other side, far down."

"Other side of what?"

"From where we came in."

"You mean the other side of Athena's Glory." She nodded. "Up towards Central Square then." He rubbed his face with his hands. "Just… great."

*What's the problem? Tenenbaum is under the tram tunnel outside. It shouldn't be hard to find her.*

*Had a big splicer attack from up north. Lost some people. Had to close the flood gate.*

Food gate? Later. *You can't get there then?*

*Can get there, have to take the long way around to do it.*

They arrived at the apartment. "What was this place like? "

"Big room, stairs, lots of water, beds."

"And idea how long the Little Sisters have been there?"

She paused to think a moment. "About two weeks I think."

"Ok. Anna, I'm going to see if Xin or Lisa can watch you while I go find Tenebaum. Go to your room and stay there."

"But I want…!"

"Anna, go to your room." he told her sternly.

"Yes, sir." She said sadly.

She had the impulse to ask her father to take her along, but knew that was an unnecessary risk. One thing she did want to know though. *How long as it been since I fell asleep?*

*It's November 16th.*

*1959?*

*Yeah, still some time before Jack gets here.*

Then her father was out of range. Her room had changed some while she had been asleep. There were a few stuffed toys here now, some paintings on the walls. Unsurprisingly nothing that depicted Rapture. Three were landscapes with trees, two of mountains and one showing a group of Indian around a fire at night.

While she waited, she plopped herself down on her bed and started drawing. She was drawing a bridge. It was just a short time before she realized it was the Brooklyn Bridge. She was only half done when a knock came on the door.

"Anna? It's Lisa, may I come in?"

"Yeah." She said loudly.

The door opened and Lisa stepped into the room and looked around a moment and walked over to one of the paintings on the wall that showed a trees and a mountain with the sun behind it. "This one is new, I like it."

"I like it too." she said as she got off the bed and started walking towards the door.

"Your father said you were grounded and weren't supposed to leave here unless it was to go to the bathroom."

She stopped and her shoulders dropped. "Ok."

"I'll be in the living room, if you need anything just call, ok?"

"Can I have a pep bar?" Oh, like THAT was going to work.

"Robert made it clear you weren't to have any of those." Lisa gently scolded her.

She looked up at the young woman and tried to look as sorry as she could.

"And I'm not going to fall for that puppy dog look." she told her and closed the door. She was glad it was Lisa and not Xin. Xin could be so… humorless.

She returned to drawing the bridge. As she worked she wondered why Lisa had a shortwave radio with her. Most radio messages went through William. Probably so her father could check up on her easily. It still seemed a bit odd though.

She was still working on the drawing two hours later. She was having some trouble getting the foreshortening down right. She was drawing with much more skill than someone her age should and she hoped no one noticed. She didn't like the idea of being taken for some kind of prodigy, it would attract attention. Of course drawing a bridge she is supposed to have never seen might get people asking questions as well.

There was a knock on the door. "Anna, your father wants to talk to you. Can I come in?"

She jumped off the bed and raced to the door to open it. But when she did only Lisa was standing there with the shortwave in her hands.

"Where's daddy?" she asked looking down the corridor.

"He's on the radio. Your father's going to ask a question and you're going to tell me the answer, ok."

Ah, that was why Lisa had the radio. "But I want to talk to him." Now that would have been a very bad idea. A young girl talking on the radio would certainly attract Ryan's attention if he happened to hear it.

"You know you shouldn't." Then she spoke into the radio. "Ok, go ahead Robert."

+_Found a door, no lock, no way to open it. There's a small door at the bottom. Know how to open it?_+

She shook her head emphatically. "Yes, she does." Lisa told her father. Then there was silence as they waited for her to tell them.

+_And how does one open the door?_+

"Only Sisters can open the small ones, then we can open the big ones." she explained to Lisa. That unfortunately made a lot of sense. A small door would keep the splicers out of the Little Sister's safe areas. If an adult wanted to get in, a Little Sister would have to let them in. If there was another way to open the doors, Ryan certainly would have it very tightly controlled.

"She said only … uh, those like her can open them."

+_Only... Let me think._+

Her father didn't say anything for several minutes. Her father was probably going to have to sit and watch for when Tenenbaum left the safe area and talk to her then.

+_Are you sure that it's safe to come down here again?_+

What? She nodded her head again even more emphatically. Why would her father want her to go back to the safe area?

"She said yes."

+_Are you positive?_\+ From the tone of his voice he did like the idea of her going back, but didn't see another choice.

"Yes!" she said happily. 'So much for being grounded.'

"She's positive. Are you sure about this?" Lisa clearly didn't like the idea of her crawling into a Little Sister Vent again either. Lisa didn't understand that the only place safer for her than the Little Sister Vent system was with her father.

+_Yeah I'm sure. She can take care of herself better than you think. Could you please escort her to.. well she knows where._+

She had a big smile on her face. Lisa looked at her then back at the radio. "If you say so. Do you want me to give her the radio?"

+_No, just cause more problems._+

Lisa put away the radio and looked at her. "I sure hope you two know what you're doing."

"I'll be ok." she told her.

The young woman gave her a weak smile. "Guess we better get going then." "Where are we going?"

"Follow me." she happily told her.

She led Lisa to the elevator and up to the floor with the day care center. As they walked past, Mrs. Wildhelm came out the door.

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

"Robert said this was ok."

"What was ok?"

As the two talked she kept on walking towards the Little Sister Vent. She could have taken one closer to the apartment, but she already knew the path down from this one and would get her there faster. She went to the vent and jumped up and grabbed the bottom edge and pulled herself up.

Behind her Mrs. Wildhelm raised a cry of alarm as Lisa tried to explain that it was ok. The two woman's voices quickly faded as she crawled deeper into the vent system. Going down was a lot easier than climbing up, but it still took a little time for her to get to the safe area. She got near the vent exit and stopped for several moments to listen. All she heard were a couple of the Little Sisters playing. Had Tenenbaum shown up and left already?

She cautiously stuck her head out of the Vent and looked around. Two the Little Sisters were playing with some blocks. One had green and white dress with reddish hair while the other wore a purple and white dress and had short black hair. That must be Veronica and Keiko.

The two noticed her and stood up. She quickly held a finger to her lips and went "shush". The two nodded as she climbed out and dropped to the floor. The smell of cigarette smoke was even stronger than when she had been here earlier. She looked to the office and saw a woman seated at a desk with her back to the door. She was looking at some papers and was surrounded by a dense cloud of smoke. As she looked the woman blew out another cloud of smoke to join the one already clogging in the room.

She was happier than ever that her father had stopped smoking.

The two other Little Sisters came over to her as she started walking for the stairs leading up. Now she knew why this place seemed familiar. She had seen it as she died the second time. This place had, will have a connection to Jack. Huh.

Veronica whispered in her ear like she was telling her an important secret. "Sandals are better than apples."

Keiko smiled and quietly asked "How long can you stay?"

"Don't know, my daddy will have to decide."

"Where are you going?" Veronica asked as she started climbing the stairs.

"To get my daddy." she told them with a smile.

She should be close enough now. *Booker! Can you hear me.*

*Loud and clear. Must be close.*

Keiko wondered "How can you get your daddy?"

"He's close by. He needs to talk to Doctor Tenebaum." Bess and Lyla were playing with some blocks just past the top of the stairs and stopped when they saw her.

"Hi Anna." "Your back!" they called and rushed over to her and Bess gave her a quick hug and all four started talking to her rapidly.

*Booker, could you knock on the door or something? The Little Sisters distracting me.*

A moment later there was a heavy knocking at the door. The Little Sisters immediately stopped talking and looked to the door in fear.

"I have something to do." She told them and walked to door. Once there she got on her hands and knees and the small doors at the bottom of the larger one opened to let her pass. The Little Sisters panicked crying out "No!" "Stop!" "Bad men!"

She crawled through the door and looked up at her father standing on the other side. "Hi Daddy!"

"There you are, thought you got lost." he said with a smile. He didn't have his mask on and his coat was over his left arm. His autopistol was holstered and the machine gun was slung on his back. Guess he didn't want to scare Tenenbaum by walking holding an armory.

As he reached down to pick her up, the larger set of door opened. She giggled a little as he picked her up then looked back at the Little Sisters. They were torn between fear and amazement.

"Hello, my name is Robert. I'm Anna's father."

He walked through the doorway and put her on the floor. That started all rushed of the talking at both of them. "He's you daddy?", "He's big.", "Are you my daddy too?", "Can you play with us?", "He's my daddy, not yours!"

*Tenenbaum is down those stairs?* he asked.

*Yes, she's in a small office on the west side.*

"I'm sorry," he told them "I need to speak to Doctor Tenenbaum."

"Momma Tenenbaum is downstairs." Bess told him.

"Thank you. Come on Anna." When they moved away from the door, it closed automatically. Her father was quiet was they walked down, careful keeping watch on everything. Soon they were outside Tenenbaum's office. She was still inside studying papers and surrounded by a cloud of smoke. Her father motioned for them to move away from him and lifted his hand to knock on door.

Lyla spoke up before he could do so. "Mama Tenenbaum doesn't like to be bothered when she's working."

"Think she'll make an acceptation." He told her and knocked.

"One moment, one moment!"

The door opened and Tenenabaum was standing there, her attention still on the papers she held. "Yes, yes, vot is it?" The woman didn't notice her father standing in front of her.

"Doctor Tenenbaum I presume?" her father asked.

Tenebaum's head snapped up. "Scheisse!" With surprising speed she dropping the papers and pulled out a pistol.

"Who are you? I will not let you have my Little One's!"

Her father raised his hands. "No need to worry, not here to hurt anyone. Not lookin' for ADAM and don't work for Atlas or Ryan."

Tenenbaum looked around frantically, but didn't fire. "Are there more of you? How did you get here?"

"Just me." he assured the older woman and turned to her and motioned with his hand. "As for how I got in here, I had help."

She walked over to stand near her father. When Tenenbaum saw her, she just looked at her in surprise.

"Name's Robert Boston and this is my daughter Anna. Was hoping you might be able to help her."

"Hello Doctor Tenenbaum. Nice to meet you." she told the older woman. Tenenbaum had dark hair and looked to be in her mid to late thirties. She would be a rather attractive woman if she would clean herself up a little. But when you looked into her eyes you could see they were sad, filled with remorse.

Tenenbaum slowly lowered the gun and her eyes took on a haunted look. "I am sorry Herr Boston, but I cannot cure your daughter of what I have done to her."

"Didn't think you had a cure yet, but you still can be of help."

Tenenbaum sat down at her desk as if she were very tired. "You are too kind Herr Boston. How do you think I may help your little one?"

"They did something to her so she would see thing wrong."

"Ach, that I can undo, but there is still much I cannot." The woman glanced downward.

"What can't you undo?"

"The little ones are conditioned to do things, harvest the dead. You must know this."

"Other than seeing things wrong, she's as she's always been."

"Your little one did not finish the conditioning?" She looked at her father in puzzled surprise.

"Didn't work on her." her father told Tenenbaum with a dismissive shrug.

"How can that be?"

"Let's say that Anna is too stubborn for that to work."

"Daddy!" She complained indignantly. Comstock had tried for months to break her and failed. Compared to that, the conditioning for the Little Sisters was certainly less harsh. Not easy by any means, but she had withstood much worse for much longer.

Her father looked at her with a smile. "Stubborn in a good way."

"Humph." she pouted.

"I see." Tenenbaum seemed a little unsure to make of her two visitors. "It will take several minutes to prepare the compound. If you would wait outside please."

They stepped out of the office and found the four Little Sisters all staring at her father. What could they want?

"So, Herr Boston, how did you find your little one?" Tenenbaum's voice came over s small speaker.

"Searched the city till I found her."

"A dangerous task. Did you have assistance?"

"If you're asking if Atlas or Ryan helped, no. I'll see both dead someday."

"A bold claim Herr Boston."

"Didn't say I'd be the one to do it."

Tenenbaum didn't say anything for a time and started measuring and mixing chemicals together in a beaker.

*Booker, this can't be Tenebaum's laboratory. She would need much more equipment and supplies.*

*Suspected as much. It's likely someplace close by though.*

"You seem very trusting of me, why is that? It is my fault that your child is like that."

"You turned on Ryan and are trying to fix the mess you made the best you can. I know how that is."

"You are very understanding for one so young Herr Boston." She held the beaker in her hand up and looked at the color. "Sehr gute, it is done."

Tenenbaum come out of the office and walked towards them with the beaker in her hand. "The little one just needs to drink this and her vision will become normal." She looked down at her. "There may be some discomfort for a short time und you will feel very warm. Close your eyes before you drink und do not open them until I say." Then she held out the beaker for her to take.

She took the beaker and looked at it a moment. The liquid inside was a dark red color and didn't smell very good. She closed her eyes and slowly took a drink. It tasted worse than it smelled, but she drank it all.

First she saw small flashes light even though her eyes were still closed. They grew brighter and started swirling together before slowly fading. Then the nausea hit. Her knees felt weak but a hand gently held her shoulder to steady her. As the nausea faded she started feeling warm, then burning hot, but that to slowly faded.

"The compound I gave her reverses the Plasmids that have altered the little one's visual cortex and some of the conditioning." Tenenbaum paused. "The visual cortex is the part of the brain that processes what is seen by the eyes."

"Seems almost too easy." Her father said.

"I... helped create zis so I know how it verks and how undo it. I have already done this with the other little ones. But there are those I cannot undo, nor can I cure they genetic damage caused by splicing. It is fortunate that the little ones are kept well by the slugs."

Her father wisely didn't bring up that he had spliced. Even cured she wasn't sure how Tenenbaum would react.

"It is time to open your eyes little one."

She slowly opened her eyes. She felt a little dizzy. She blinked a few times. It felt like a weight was gone from her mind, a weight she hadn't realized had been there. Everything looked as it should now. She could see normally again!

She could read now!

End Chapter 73


	74. Chapter 74

Bioshock Infinite: Union

Chapter 74

Anna/Elizabeth

She looked up at her father. "Daddy! I can see better!" She turned to Tenenbaum. "Thank you!"

"You are welcome little one. I wish I could do more."

"What is the problem is curing the Little Sisters?" her father asked.

Tenebaum looked uneasy. "May we talk about this in my office?"

"No problem." he said following the woman. She of course followed her father. When Tenenbaum noticed, she stopped.

"I do not think the little one should hear this."

"But I want to hear." she told the woman stubbornly. *Booker, I'd like to hear what she has to say.*

"Anna's a smart girl. Best she knows what the truth is." her father told Tenenbaum.

"As you wish." She clearly still had reservations about it.

She went and took over the chair while Tenenbaum and her father stood.

"Tell me what you know." the woman asked.

"No much, just that removing the slug kills the girl."

"That is a very simplistic description. Once the slug is implanted in a little one, it forms a symbiotic relationship with its host.

She made a face at what Tenenbaum was saying. The woman noticed, but didn't remark on it. She suspected that it bothered her that she was aware of her situation.

"The host is dependent on the slug to live and in turn the host provided a suitable environment for the slug to live in. If the slug is removed or killed, the host cannot survive. I had thought I had developed a method to restore the host's normal bodily functions…" She paused and looked down in shame. "I was wrong. The little one did not live long once the slug was removed."

"Do you know why it didn't work?" her father asked.

"I believe so. When the slug is killed or removed it causes a catastrophic reaction in the host in an attempt to protect itself. This reaction eventually kills the host."

"Ever try making it so that the slug want to leave?" her father asked.

"Vas?" Tenenbaum's looked a little confused. "I do not understand."

Her father explained. "Make the slug uncomfortable. Do something that it hates, but doesn't hurt it to much. Make it want to get out of the Little Sister."

"Could it be?" The woman was suddenly energized and started shifting through papers, tossing unneeded ones aside, all the while muttering to herself in a mixture of German and English. In between throwing papers around she hastily wrote notes on a clipboard.

She and her father looked on as it went on for several minutes. It was as if Tenenbaum had forgotten they were there.

"Doctor Tenenbaum?" her father spoke after nearly getting hit in the face with one of the papers that had been tossed aside.

"Can't you see I'm busy? Go away, I need to vork!" She threw up a hand in to dismiss them.

Well, THAT was rude!

Her father tapped her on the shoulder and motioned that they should leave. As they got to the door Tenenbaum called out "Wait!"

They turned back. "I am sorry. I get… distracted at times. How may I contact you? If I can cure the little ones?" It's not like Tenenbaum could call them on the radio. Both Atlas and Ryan would be after her then.

Her father looked down at her. "This "little one" will be down here to play with the others again, if it's all right with you." Tenenbaum nodded her head.

In response she got a big smile on her face and clapped her hands together. "AFTER she's done being grounded. You can give her a message." Her shoulders slumped and she pouted. Well, at least she could read now.

"It may be some time before I am sure this will vork. It may not vork at all."

"Have a feeling it'll work. In the meantime this little one needs to eat her dinner."

"Where do you live Herr Boston?"

"Athena's Glory."

"It is very fortunate that you and your little one found this place, my sanctuary."

"Guess it was. Let's go Anna." There was something odd in the tone of her father's voice. Like he knew something or at least suspected something. They left the office and walked to the Little Sister Vents. The other Little Sisters were all there still looked at her father.

"Are you leaving?" Lyla asked.

"Yes."

"Will you be back soon?" Bess asked with a hopeful expression.

"Sorry, don't think I will. It's dangerous for me to come here, so I can't do it often."

"Oh." The girl said sadly. Seeing her father was likely the most entertaining thing to happen to them for some time.

"Anna will be back again." That seemed to cheer them up some.

*Is it really that dangerous?* She had a hard time imagining her father considering anything other than a Big Daddy a real threat.

*It's a long trip and a splicer might see me come down here.*

There was that. Secrecy was the safe house's best protection. Her father got out the radio. "Lisa, you read me."

A few moments later the young woman's voice came back. +_Everything ok? Is there a problem?_+

"No problems. Just sending someone back up. Should be about five minutes. Will talk when I get back."

+_Understood. I'll be ready for her._+

He picked her up and put her in the vent. "We'll talk after dinner, ok?"

"Okay!"

"Now get going, Lisa's waiting. I'll be down here until she says you're ok."

He wasn't going to take a chance that she might decide to come back a play a little more with the other Little Sisters.

She crawled into the vent and up to the one by the daycare. Her father needn't have worried about her going back to play as she was starting to get tired and hungry. She stuck her head out the vent to see Lisa waiting for her. "Hi Lisa." The young woman looked relived to see her and smiled.

"Nice to see you back Anna."

"I can see better now!" she told her as she climbed down to the floor.

"Really. Well you still have to go back to your room. I got some food for you in your room."

"Thank you."

"Your welcome."

Before going back to the room they stopped at the daycare to see Mrs. Wildhelm. She happily proclaimed she could see better to the older woman and received a hug in response as her husband stood behind her with a smile. It was then that she realized that the Wildhelms were very much like grandparents to her. It was a nice feeling. Then it was back to her room where Lisa had left some food on the small table in her room.

The food was cold and didn't taste all that good, but it filled her up and was nutritious. She knew her father would take the dishes back later. She looked around a moment and realized while she could read now there were no books in her room. Her father had built up a small library in the living room so she would have something to read soon enough. While she waited she worked on her drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge some more.

It was some time before her father arrived back to the apartment. She jumped off the bed and ran for the door, but stopped as she started to open it.

Grounded.

She sighed and tried to listen in as her father and Lisa talked for a short time. She couldn't make out they were saying though.

Soon there was a knock on the door.

She opened to the door for her father.

*How the trip back Booker?*

He was still partially in his "splicer" disguise. *Had worse.* He went down and one knee to give her a hug. Then she noticed he had been hiding a book behind his back.

He brought the book out and held it out for her to see. It was "One Thousand and One Nights."

She looks from the book to her father. "Something to read before Xin starts burying you in text books." he told her with a smile.

"Thank you daddy!" and she gave him another hug. Then she opened the book to started paging through it.

*I haven't read this book before. How did you find it?*

*Broke into a few book places along with the jewelry stores. Knew you hadn't read it since Comstock didn't cotton much to anyone's fairy tales but his own.*

He father backed out of the room and closed the while she buried her nose in the book. The smell of a new book, nothing quite like it. *And how many jewelry stores have you broken into?* Her father was probably going to the living room which was still in range of the Communication Plasmid.

*Five so far. Haven't found any others.*

She was starting to read the first of the stories. *Huh. Do you think that will be enough?*

*Hope so. Don't know how many Little Sisters there are or how much the gems are worth now.*

*And speaking of Little Sisters, how did you come up with the idea of making the slug want to leave a host?*

*Ticks.*

*Ticks? As in the blood sucking insect?*

*Yeah. When I was out in the field, animals and people would pick them up. If you don't have tweezers to pull them off or it get in a place you can't reach 'em, have to get the tick to leave on its own.*

*Huh! I would never have thought of something like that.*

*Only way to learn that kind of thing is to have an experience you'd rather not have.*

She understood that well enough. The only reason both of them were alive and together now was because of what they had gone through in Columbia.

*Now, shouldn't you being reading?*

*One last question. Did Dr. Tenenbaum seem a little… odd to you?*

*Nothing we've not seen before.*

Should have seen it. *Lutece. Constants and Variables.*

*Yeah. Comstock had to deal with them a lot longer than we did. Go enjoy your new book.*

*Thank you, I think I will.*

…

Her father was right about Xin dumping a bunch of reading on her. The very next day she showed up at the apartment with an armful of books. Her father allowed it, but only to a point. He wasn't going to allow her to be buried in books or work.

The weeks passed surprisingly quickly. While she was grounded, her father rarely left the apartment. He was making certain that she would not be isolated again. The Wildhelms came to visit a number of times as did Lisa, Mary and others, so being grounded was nothing like being in the Tower. Still she was very happy when she was able to just go to day care. It was a little longer before she was allowed to visit Tenebaum's safe house again.

It was nearly three weeks after her being grounded had ended and she was playing blocks with Keiko. She knew she should find this boring, but she didn't. Since the removal of the conditioning she found things different somehow. She was able to still be a child while remembering being Elizabeth without problems, at least most of the time. The part of her that remembered just seemed to sit back much of the time and enjoy being a child. She would go days without using the Plasmid to talk to her father and even when she did, it was often about something that she couldn't speak out loud about.

She was carefully placing a block on the tower she and Keiko were building when Tenenbaum came up with a letter in her hand.

"Anna, could you please give this to your vater when you go back. It is very important."

She took the letter and had an impulse to open it, but didn't. "Good news?" she asked.

The woman smiled weakly. "It is good, but I am in need something und I hope your vater may be of help."

"Ok. Thank you!" she told her. Then she paused to look at her new watch. Something her father had "acquired" in his ventures around Rapture. It was a little after three, time she went back.

"Sorry, have to go home." She told the other girl as she stood.

"Can't you stay a little longer?" The Little Sister looked up at her, her yellow eyes disappointed.

She shook her head. "Be back soon. By!"

The other girls waved or said goodbye and she climbed into the vent. The letter bothered her. Or rather Tenenbaum's reaction did. If she had a cure why didn't she come out and say it? She would find out soon enough.

When she got back to the apartment her father was there. He was seated at the kitchen table with several locks in front of him, two books on locks and several sets of lock picks. He had decided to learn how to pick locks while she had been grounded. A polite way to describe his skill in lock picking was that he still had much to learn.

But he didn't stop trying and he was slowly getting better.

He looked up as she walked in. "Daddy! Doctor Tenenbaum gave me a letter for you!"

"Thank you. Did you have fun?"

"Yep. What's the letter say?"

"Let me open it first." he told her as he carefully opened it. He read it, then re-read it.

"What's it say?"

"Tenenbaum thinks she figured out how to remove the slug safely, but there's a problem." He looked troubled.

She frowned. "What problem?"

"She needs a sample of a Little Sister's genetics from before she was a Little Sister and after to work with, then she'll have all she needs. Tenenbaum wants to know if I have some of your hair from before."

He looked stricken. "I don't have any."

She tilted her head to think. "Old hair?" she asked not .

Old hair, OLD HAIR! Part of her felt like laughing and another part felt relieved. The trip back to Columbia hadn't been the waste of time at all.

*I know were some of my hair is. It's a bit old, but it's still viable.*

*Old?*

*Remember when I told you Elizabeth went back to Columbia?*

*Suchong had you get... a hair sample.*

"Is everything all right daddy?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. Just remembered something. Dinner will be starting soon, you better ready." *Didn't you say that you found it in Suchong's lab?*

"What are we having tonight?"

"Goulash."

"Neat!" And she scampered back to her room.

*Yes, in Artemis Suites. You'll have to go in through the hidden entrance behind the Rapture Tribune newsstand in the lower Metro Station.*

*That's... convenient.* He had sounded like he suspected something before and now she was sure of it. No, he didn't suspect, he *knew* something. Her head started to feel a little funny.

He shook his head as if to clear it. *Now just have to think of a good reason to go there.*

*Booker, you figured out something.*

*Guess I did. Still trying to put it to together.*

*What is it? Let me help. I can tell it's important.*

He was quiet for several minutes while she was in the bathroom washing up.

*I think your plan worked.*

*My plan? To free the Little Sisters?*

*That's not the plan, wasn't the whole plan.*

*Booker, talk sense. What is this plan you're talking about?*

*To get me and Anna to Rapture.*

*NO! I wouldn't drag you and Anna into this! How could I? I didn't even know you were alive!*

*Think you found out when you decided to save the Little Sisters and forgot when you came back to Rapture.*

*That makes no sense! How could... The Lutece Device. I would have found it and saw what they would do with it. But still, I wouldn't have forced you to be part of this. It was MY debt to pay, not yours and certainly not Anna's.* She was in her bedroom now changing her blouse, but she was moving slowly, a little unsteady.

*Been getting flashes of a memory. Anna and I are near an ally in New York, someone in the ally. Can't see them, know who it is, but can't remember who. Can't remember anything after that until the next morning when we wake up in a hotel room. I think it was you, Elizabeth, in that ally.*

*I would never...*

*I would have wanted to help. What kind of father would I be if I let hundreds, thousands of girls be turned into Little Sisters and killed?*

*But Anna...*

*Would have wanted to help. YOU would have wanted to help. And I would trust you so she would be safe in the end.*

She was getting a little dizzy and sat on her bed. *But ... what proof is there?* This had to be a mistake, but part of her was saying it wasn't. There was something she should be remembering.

*What about your imaginary Booker? You said he only showed up when you came back to Rapture.*

*Your saying some part of me knew you were alive? That I knew I would be Anna?*

He was quiet for a minute. *Don't think I told Elizabeth she would become Anna, don't know why. Just as I don't think you told me this plan of yours, ours, would get you killed.*

*Booker, there has to be more than that.*

*The Infusions, Gear, Plasmids, Vigors, the pistol with Chen Lin's mark on it. Some of what I found was probably there already, but not all of it. You even led me to some of them, remember?* He paused a moment. *Would be no surprise if no Booker or Anna ever dies, every Booker and Anna are cured.*

She didn't think he was wrong. There was a something she was trying to remember, but she couldn't. Her old memories of being Elizabeth were in the way. There were some things that still didn't fit yet though. She wanted to know.

*Suchong. There's no way I could have caused him to send people to kidnap Anna.*

*No, you didn't.* He sounded sad. *The day Suchong's people showed up was October 8th.*

That was the same date Comstock had taken her. She just sat and stared out into space for several minutes. *A Constant. I'm always going to be taken away from you.*

*Don't know about that. But do know I couldn't stop Suchong.*

*I don't believe that. After all the battles you have been in?*

*Suchong would always have the advantage. He could send in more people than I can handle or send in splicers. Sooner or later he would win even if I was warned ahead of time. Can't win if you're on the defensive the whole time.*

Now she understood. *Instead of fighting a battle you couldn't win, we decided to fight a different one in Rapture. A fight we could win.*

*With all the other Booker's killed by Songbird, don't think it was hard decision to avoid a fight I couldn't win.*

She only half heard him, she was putting it all together in her mind like it was a puzzle. *I could see behind all the doors to make sure you would get me back. If I saw a problem, I could arrange that you find an Infusion or weapon to help, even if I couldn't change something directly.*

*Change directly?*

*When you're not part of a reality like I was and the Luteces are, your ability to affect a reality is limited. I could move things around some, talk to people, but I couldn't actually change much. That's why the Luteces had to work through us in Columbia. That's why I had to come back to Rapture even when I knew Atlas would kill me. It was the only way to make sure he had his "Ace".*

*Take it there's a reason you couldn't open a tear to bring me to Rapture.*

*There is. In order to make a tear, I have to be part of the reality the tear is from or going to. In Rapture I was dead and if I went back I would lose my powers. If I became part of your reality, a reality with Anna, I would have fallen out of my superposition state to become like Anna, a normal girl with no powers.*

It felt like there was pressure growing in her head.

*So you could visit Rapture and home, but couldn't do much or stay long. That's why Lutece and their Tear Machine had to be involved.*

*Yes, it would have been only way to get you to Rapture. There's something I still don't understand. If we planned all this, why don't you remember it?*

*Maybe if I remembered, I might do something or not do something to give it away. You think Lutece would have helped if we asked?*

*No, they only would have helped if they thought it was interesting. Saving Little Girls doesn't seem of qualify. But a chance to do more experiments with Constants and Variables like those in Columbia? That would have been irresistible to them.* She lay down on the bed. It wasn't pressure in her head, it was in her mind. Something she was trying to remember. Important. *I must have gotten a Plasmid that suppresses memories and given it to you. I didn't force you into this. We did this together.*

*Yes, we did. Even if we don't remember, we decided what we wanted to happen. We made the choice, not Lutece or anybody else. Just have to finish it now.*

"Anna!" her father called. "You about ready?"

It was getting hard to remember now. She could feel Elizabeth's memories starting to drift away. That was ok. *Telling you where to find the sample of my hair, that's the last thing I had to tell you. The final piece.*

"Anna?" her father called again. Old memories slipped away. They were still there, but they weren't important anymore, going far away. New memories, much better.

*It's ok, dad. It's going to be ok.*

*Elizabeth?* "Anna!"

New was better. She remembered now, how could she forget? What did she forget? Walking with her dad outside, holding his hand. Trees. The sun bright in the blue sky. Playing with a ball. Her 5th birthday cake. Taking apart a lock, seeing how it worked. Dad reading to her at bed time. Mary cooking in the kitchen. Punching that big bully in the nose. Riding across a huge bridge of brick and steel wires. The statue of a lady with a torch. Popcorn! Dad rocking her to sleep.

Heard dad call, just wanted to rest a little more. She still wanted to remember something. Important. She and daddy met someone.

They had gone to see the big green statue of the lady in the harbor, Statue of Liberty, that was the name. It was starting to get dark and they were walking back to get a trolley home. Then she dropped her popcorn. She looked up at her daddy. He gave her a small smile.

"Don't worry. I can buy another one, but if you drop it, you aren't getting another one."

A lady's voice called out from the ally ahead. "Mr. DeWitt, I bring a warning for you." Can't see her, too dark. "In three days men will come to take your daughter from you."

"Elizabeth?" daddy said. He was surprised. Hard to surprise daddy.

"They will... How do you know my name?" the voice demanded. The lady has a nice voice, but it's hard, hurt.

"Elizabeth, its Booker." Daddy's voice was soft.

"My Booker is Dead!" the voice nearly yelled, it sounded more hurt now and sad.

"It's really me Elizabeth. I broke you out of the Tower on Monument Island, you showed me the Sea of Doors." He was almost begging.

Something in the ally moved and a lady stepped out. She was dressed really funny. A white blouse and dark blue skirt by nothing like she had ever seen. Her legs had some kind of net on them. Her face was so pale and lips much to red. Was she sick?

"Booker?" she sounded scared now. Why should she be scared of daddy? Only bad people should be scared of daddy.

She slowly walked over to daddy. There was something on her pinky, metal. The pinky on her right hand tingled so much it almost hurt.

The lady reached up her right hand to daddies face. He didn't try to stop her.

"Are you real?" She sounded really scared, but hopeful at the same time.

Daddy smiled. "Real enough."

The lady suddenly had her arms around daddy. Oh, she was one of THOSE. Humph!

She's crying?

"I'm sorry, so sorry." she kept on saying.

Daddy tried to comfort her. "Not your fault. My fault, you did what was needed. Not your fault."

Who is was this lady? Daddy knew her, liked her. They just stood there holding each other. She went up and pulled on daddy's sleeve.

"Daddy!"

He looked down at her. The expression on his face, scared, surprised, sad and more. She had never seen him like that. It was just that a moment, then he smiled.

"Elizabeth." he said softly. "Elizabeth." he said louder again as he very gently pushed the lady away from him. There were tears streaming down her face, but she was happy. Daddy took a step to the side.

"Elizabeth, this is Anna. Anna, say hello to Elizabeth."

Elizabeth wiped away the tears and bent down. She had a big smile on her face. A real one, not like the ones who just wanted something from daddy. "Hello Anna. I'm so very happy to meet you."

Elizabeth's eyes. Big blue, hers. Elizabeth had her eyes. How could that be? Something inside her knew something, she didn't know how, did know what, but she had to tell daddy. Very important. She just knew.

She smiled "Nice to meet you Elizabeth."

Daddy spoke. "Think we should get out of the street, people coming."

Elizabeth stood and glanced down. "Yes, I'm exactly not dressed for this time period."

"There's a hotel down a few blocks, we can..."

Elizabeth backed towards the alley. "Room 318. I'll be in the room when you get there."

The lights flickered and Elizabeth was gone. How?

Daddy whispered. "What happened to you Elizabeth?"

"Daddy."

He turned back towards her. He was smiling, but was worried.

"Daddy, you mustn't tell her. She's not to know."

He got down on one knee. "What am I not supposed to tell her?"

"I didn't know, so she can't know." That didn't make sense. She said it, but didn't know what it meant. But daddy understood. "You didn't know, so she won't know."

"What won't she know?" she didn't quite remember what she said.

"She has a second chance." He seemed sad.

"Second chance at what?"

"Hard to explain. Let's get to the hotel. Have the feeling it's going to be a long night."

And they started walking to the hotel her father holding her hand.

That's what she wanted to remember. Why didn't she remember that before? She looked around her room a moment. Somehow it was little like seeing it for the first time.

"ANNA!" her daddy yelled through the door. "Are you ok?"

She must have drifted off. "I'm ok daddy, just sleepy."

"May I come in?"

"Yes." He was through the door in an instant looking very worried.

"Are you sure you're ok?"

"I'm ok. Tired, not hungry now. Can I go to bed?"

"I'll pick up something in case you get hungry later." he was relived, but still a bit sad.

She lay back and was asleep the moment her head touched the pillow.

It was going to be ok…

…

Damn door was closed, but nothing that couldn't be opened with a little work.

A few minutes later the heavy metal door was open and for the first time in over a year, Booker DeWitt stood in the light of the sun. He closed eyes feeling the warmth on his face. Been much too long.

"You're in the way!" a voice complained from behind him.

"Sorry Anna."

He stepped aside to let his daughter through the door and out of the Lighthouse. She took a deep breath of fresh air and tried looking at three things at once. It had been even longer for her.

Ryan and Fontaine were dead. The Little Sisters were little girls again and the survivors in the enclaves were looking to be shut of Rapture. No splicers would be leaving, nor would any ADAM. He walked away from the doors and looked up at the tall dark lighthouse. It looked the same as it did when he saw it in Sea of Doors.

It occurred to him that this was the first time he had actually left one of these damn lighthouses since going to Columbia. Maybe it meant that he and Anna were done with Lighthouses, Men and Cities.

He looked to Anna, six years old now and growing fast. She wore jeans and a white blouse and light jacket the same shade of blue as her eyes. Her long hair was untied and blowing gently in the breeze. There had been no side effects of being cured other than a few nightmares. He wasn't sure if they were from Columbia or Rapture. Still, she was bright eyed and energetic as she had always been.

"Daddy look!"

He walked over to where she was to see what she was pointing at. Down at the bottom of the steps was a bathysphere. A large man in a white sweater was there helping some of the former Little Sisters out of the sphere. Thought one of them was Sally since she was carrying a doll. They all seemed frightened.

They had never seen the sun before.

Anna looked to him. "Can I help?" Seeing Anna would help calm the other girls.

"Ok, but be careful."

She yelled "Wohoo!" and scrambled down the stairway with much more dexterity that six year olds were supposed to have. He smiled when she ran up to the man, Jack, who looked rather surprised by her arrival. Anna then went over to the other girls and started talking and pointing at the sun.

As he stood and watched he realized there was someone standing to his right. Before he could even think to turn and look, they were gone.

He sighed. He knew who it had been. She never knew she would have a second chance.

"The girl shall not return." The female's voice came behind him.

"After leaving here, she re-infused herself into this reality just after she died the first time." The male said.

"And after achieving her goal, was murdered by a con man." She spoke with no emotion in her voice.

He turned to find Lutece standing near the doors of the lighthouse.

"Of course that was not the end for the girl, was it?" the man asked already clearly knowing the answer.

"Really Mr. DeWitt, trying to hide what is so readily apparent."

"And what's so apparent?" he asked.

The male answered. "That upon her death, the girl would return to her proper place, just as you had done."

He shrugged slightly. "Seemed like the thing to do at the time." So it hadn't been Lutece, but Elizabeth that he had kept from knowing she would become Anna when she died. He still didn't know why he had done it and likely never would. But it at least had seemed to have served as a distraction for Lutece. There was something else, still a piece that didn't fit.

He thought a moment and it fell into place. "You were the ones that put the Communication Plasmid in Fontaine's for me to find." The female raised an eyebrow at what he said.

The male looked at the other. "Told you he would figure it out."

"Yes, you did." The female said as she gave her brother a slightly irritated glance. "There was little chance of your surviving long enough to obtain any usable data without some assistance and locating the girl would have proved nearly impossible."

Had to admit they might have been right. "So was your "experiment" successful?"

The male replied, seeming quite pleased. "It was. The results generated were as interesting…"

"as they were unexpected. The survival of both subjects in every reality is unprecedented." the other finished.

Didn't like being called a "subject", but nothing for it. And as he thought, Elizabeth had made sure that every Booker and Anna were safe.

"Guess it's a Constant then." He told then as he glanced down at Anna to see what she was doing. She was telling something to Jack, no idea what.

"Do you plan on attempting to return to your original time and place?" the male asked.

"Given how quickly you assembled the Contraption, I suspect that you know enough to construct one if given proper resources."

So that's why they were here. "Think it's better for Anna here and now."

"Better in what way?" the male asked. He actually seemed curious as to why.

"Back then woman couldn't vote most places or couldn't own property. Most colleges wouldn't allow women to attend." Hated to agree with Comstock on anything, but he couldn't find fault with giving women equal rights with men. "Here, Anna will have the choice to be who she wants to be."

He heard a raised voice from the direction of the sphere and looked down. One of the girls was yelling and pointing at the top of the lighthouse.

The female said with grudging sense of approval "If you think that's important."

"Until the next time Mr. DeWitt."

He turned back and Lutece was gone. 'Next time?' Hoped there would never be one. But if there was, that was for other day, not this one.

Elizabeth's plan had worked, Lutece didn't suspect a thing. The best grift is the one where the victim never knows they were grifted.

He stood a moment and watched his daughter play in the bright sunshine, then went down to join her.

End Chapter 74

End of Bioshock Infinite: Union

Author's Notes

I started writing this story nearly two years ago and I *never* thought it would take so long. But as many writers have said "Stories write themselves." I made my fair share of mistakes and there are some parts of this that didn't turn out nearly as good as I would have liked. Maybe I did a little too much world building sometimes. Anyway this has been a real experience.

I started this story in large part to fight off the depression I felt over how Burial at Sea ended. I hope those that read this find some enjoyment in it and makes them feel better. Maybe we will get lucky and we will get a proper (Good) end for Booker and Anna in the Bioshock Infinite Novel. Maybe it will even be a little like this story.

Only time will tell.

Some notes on foreshadowing. I did put clues that Booker being in Rapture was part of a plan. I hope I didn't put them in too deep or make them too obvious. It can be a hard thing to do. Of course there is Booker remembering the ally were he meets Elizabeth, but real clue to something really being off is that when Booker was hallucinating Elizabeth, he was seeing her as she looked in Burial at Sea. I'm not sure how many people noticed this.

To everyone who has read this story, favored or have taken the time to write a review that was constructive, Thank You all Very much. You have all helped me to get this story finished. sm


End file.
